In his upper eastside Manhattan apartment, Michael is throwing a birthday party for Harold, a self-awoved "32 year-old, pock-marked, Jew fairy", complete with surprise gift: "Cowboy" a street hustler. As the evening wears on, fueled by drugs and alcohol, bitter, unresolved resentments among the guests come to light when a game of "Truth" goes terribly wrong.
Through it all, the ensemble filled with out-and-proud actors is uniformly terrific. They deftly hug the curves of the script as it goes from barbed humor to bile-spewing. To his credit Crowley doesn't tie things up with a bow. 'Call you tomorrow,' says Harold, after the carnage. In other words, boys will be boys.
To some degree, at least, we seem to have learned. The keen-edged and engrossing 50th-anniversary revival of The Boys in the Band-which is also the play's Broadway debut-is the creation of five openly gay producers, an openly gay director (the redoubtable Joe Mantello) and nine openly gay actors. No one seems worried about being role models; they focus on their roles, and on Crowley's favorful dialogue, whose basic bitterness is frequently cut with acid.
1968 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1996 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2010 | Off-Broadway |
Transport Group Revival Off-Broadway |
2017 | West End |
West End Transfer Production West End |
2018 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Robin De Jesus |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Mart Crowley |
Videos