Desert Rose Playhouse Presents Mart Crowley's THE BOYS IN THE BAND, Now thru 5/5

The Desert Rose Playhouse, the Valley's live stage company serving the LGBT community, will present Mart Crowley's classic play "The Boys in the Band", at The Commissary in Rancho Mirage. The show will open tonight, April 5, 2013 for a five-week run closing on May 5.

It's Harold's birthday and his friends are throwing him a party he'll never forget, complete with his surprise gift --- a street hustler named Cowboy. As the evening progresses, many drinks are swilled and a game of Truth goes terribly wrong. This is a funny, bitchy and very moving classic gay play presented in an engrossing environmental production co-directed by Steve Fisher and Jim Strait.

"The Boys in The Band" opened off-Broadway in New York in 1968. The production ran for over 1000 performances and was recognized as the first commercial play written about homosexual characters that humorously and dramatically treated them as "real" human beings living outside of normal society. Playwright Crowley explained, "The self-deprecating humor was born out of a low self-esteem, from a sense of what the times told you about yourself." A 2-record LP album of the play's dialogue was released the same year and a film directed by William Friedkin opened in 1970 with most of the original Off-Broadway and London cast reprising their stage roles.

The Desert Rose Playhouse is a project of Desert Rose Productions, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation. "The Boys in The Band" continues Desert Rose Productions' mission to produce and present literate, relevant and entertaining plays and musicals to LGBT and Gay-Friendly theatregoers in the Coachella Valley.

Tickets are $25 and are on sale now. To order go online at www.desertroseplayhouse.org or call 760-202-3000.