Michael Quinn
  • About
  • Book Reviews Quinn on Books Gay Sensibility
  • Critical Influences
  • Script Doctor
  • Personal & Reported Essays
  • Interviews
  • Contact

Michael Quinn

  • About/
  • Cultural Criticism/
    • Book Reviews
    • Quinn on Books
    • Gay Sensibility
  • Critical Influences/
  • Script Doctor/
  • Personal & Reported Essays/
  • Interviews/
  • Contact/
Book Collage Photo Credit Michael Quinn.JPG

Michael Quinn

Critical Influences

Michael Quinn

  • About/
  • Cultural Criticism/
    • Book Reviews
    • Quinn on Books
    • Gay Sensibility
  • Critical Influences/
  • Script Doctor/
  • Personal & Reported Essays/
  • Interviews/
  • Contact/

Essays and cultural criticism shaped by the writers, artists, places, and ideas that have influenced my thinking. These pieces combine personal encounter with close reading to examine how taste and judgment develop over time.


November 10, 2025

Selena Gomez Is Giving Éponine Energy

November 10, 2025/ Michael Quinn
Selena Gomez Is Giving Éponine Energy

As a closeted teenager, I found expression for how I felt in Éponine’s unrequited love song “On My Own.” Decades later, I still hear that ache in the voices of Linda Ronstadt and Selena Gomez—singers with more than a little in common.

Read More
November 10, 2025/ Michael Quinn/
art & identity, critical influences, cultural criticism, LGBTQ+, music, music criticism
July 07, 2025

Hauser at Radio City Music Hall: I Came for My Partner, I Stayed for the Feeling

July 07, 2025/ Michael Quinn
Hauser at Radio City Music Hall: I Came for My Partner, I Stayed for the Feeling

What started as a campy date night turned into something unexpectedly joyful—and strangely moving.

Read More
July 07, 2025/ Michael Quinn/
critical influences, cultural criticism, music, performance, camp, LGBTQ+
LGBTQ, Pride Month, Hauser, Radio City Music Hall, classical crossover, concert review, queer aesthetics, performance, camp, cello, YouTube music, romantic spectacle, cultural criticism, Critical Influences

Critical Influences photo credit: Michael Quinn

© 2018-2026 Michael Quinn