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.
Festivities are certainly in order for this superbly mounted 50th anniversary production of 'The Boys in the Band,' Mart Crowley's breakthrough 1968 play about Manhattan gay life - still largely underground in an era that preceded both Stonewall and AIDS.
From the beginning, Boys has been criticized for catering to some of the deepest and most damaging stereotypes of gay life: the nelly, the show queen, the self-loathing closet case. Certain facets do feel dated, but to scrub them entirely would also feel like a denial of the truths and the time the play is rooted in. And for all the pop-culture asides and pointed wit, it's hardly a hollow platform for banter and bitcheries; director Joe Mantello (Wicked, the original production of Angels in America) takes care to let his characters' messier humanity come through.
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 |
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