The Boys in the Band (play)

The Boys in the Band is the title of a play by Mart Crowley which for the first time truly and honestly dealt with the lives of contemporary homosexuals. It was successfully performed on Broadway in 1968.

Related Topics:
Mart Crowley - Homosexual - Broadway

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The play is considered to be a groundbreaking work in American theater. It opened in New York on April 14, 1968, at the off-Broadway Theater Four and ran for 1002 performances. In 1970 it was adapted to a successful motion picture directed by William Friedkin.

Related Topics:
American theater - New York - Motion picture - William Friedkin

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At a time when true gay characters were seldom seen in theater performances and on TV Crowley's play presented a well-rounded view of the homosexual milieu.

Related Topics:
Theater - TV

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The scene is laid in Michael's apartment in New York's noble Upper East Side. There nine of Harold's closest friends throw him a birthday party. One of Harold's presents is "Cowboy", a male prostitute, since Harold may have trouble finding a cute young man on his own now that he is turning thirty and morose about losing his youthful looks. The other characters are Michael (a lapsed Roman Catholic alcoholic undergoing psychoanalysis); Donald (a conflicted friend who has moved far from the city to spurn the homosexual lifestyle); Bernard (an Afro-American who still pines for the wealthy white boy of the house where his mother worked as a maid); Emory (revelling in his homosexuality by acting flamboyant and girlish); Larry and Hank (a couple living together but disagreeing on the issue of monogamy); and Alan (Michael's allegedly straight old college friend). During the party the self-deprecating humor of the group takes a nasty turn as the nine men become drunker. The whole scene culminates in a cruel telephone game where each man must call someone and tell him of his love for them.

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Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band is bitter, bitchy, and scathing such as Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962). At the time of its first performance, it was able to slap the audience into a new angle on human life and human love. The drama is significant because it marks a mainstream turning point in sexual otherness and consciousness. Natalie Wood reportedly supported Crowley in a manner that made it possible for him to write his play. The author worked for Wood and her husband Robert Wagner for many years (he first met Wood while working as a production assistant on the movie Splendor in the Grass).

Related Topics:
Edward Albee - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf - Robert Wagner

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