Out on DVD: "Yentl" fans, "Arc"-oholics and "Rent"-heads rejoice

A wealth of terrific new DVD releases for gay men today, from a souped-up Yentl to the final performance of Rent to a Noah's Arc wedding, and much more!

Barbra Streisand has always had lots of gay fans, and for many of them, her cross-dressing turn as Yentl ranks as a favorite. For one thing, it's Streisand's acclaimed debut as a director. Furthermore, the plot pushes a lot of buttons, since Babs has to pretend to be a boy to study the Talmud, and innocent Amy Irving (who got an Oscar nomination) becomes smitten, not knowing that the object of her affections is really a woman. (I took the first girl I came out to to see this movie; she related.)

Oh, and did I mention that Barbra's character falls in love with a fellow student played by Mandy Patinkin, who was super-dreamy in 1983? The new two-disc DVD includes Streisand's extended cut of the film, along with a commentary (by Streisand and co-producer Rusty Lemorande), several featurettes and deleted scenes, and "An Introduction to Disc Two by Barbra Streisand."

From another corner of Planet Showtunes comes Rent: Filmed Live on Broadway, which immortalized the final performance of the long-running musical about urbanites coping with gentrification and the AIDS pandemic. The DVD includes docs about the show's final days and its nightly lottery for front-row seats, a look backstage and a performance of "Seasons of Love" featuring cast members past and present.

Also singing for her supper is my favorite Canadian lesbian of all time, in k.d. lang: Live in London, featuring the songstress and the BBC Orchestra performing songs from her recent Watershed album along with some old favorites.

Noah and his friends leapt from small-screen to big with Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom, which has the cast of the hit Logo show trooping out to the Massachusetts coastline for the long-awaited wedding of Noah (Darryl Stephens) and Wade (Jensen Atwood). Fans of the show will enjoy this feature-length outing, and Doug Spearman once again steals the show as uptight professor Chance.

Just in time for Valentine's Day come two charming hetero romantic comedies with scene-stealing gay characters. Kevin Smith's delightfully bawdy Zack and Miri Make a Porno centers around lifelong pals Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks discovering their feelings for each other after they get into the blue-movie biz, but you'll love Justin Long as an outrageous gay porn star who shows up at their high school reunion on the arm of Miri's old high school flame, played by Superman Returns star Brandon Routh.

The gays are a little less interesting in Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist—they're mainly there to (yawn) give the heroine a makeover—but they make up part of the film's adorable urban mosaic behind the love story between soft-spoken Michael Cera and spunky Kat Dennings. (Is an intrepid bisexual pornographer going to make Zack & Miri & Nick & Norah anytime soon?)

Two definite must-haves in the classics category this week: The Natalie Wood Collection features six of the screen icon's movies, including the not-everyone's-favorite screen adaptation of the musical Gypsy; Inside Daisy Clover, featuring songs by André and Dory Previn as well as a supporting performance from Robert Redford, playing a vaguely bisexual character; and a personal favorite, the supremely silly Sex and the Single Girl. (If you like the kind of fluffy sex comedies that Down With Love parodied, get your hands on Single Girl.)

Also new this week is TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection: Romantic Dramas box set, featuring two films based on the work of gay playwright Tennessee Williams (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, in which Paul Newman's gay character was thoroughly diluted by censors of the time, and A Streetcar Named Desire) and two films starring queer icon James Dean (Rebel Without a Cause, also starring Sal Mineo as a gay teen fixated on Dean's character, and East of Eden).