Boys in the Band comes to Broadway

[+ FreshFluff]

Playing Michael, Harold, Larry, and Donald are Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, and Matt Bomer. Not the casting I would have expected!

 

http://variety.com/2017/legit/news/boys-in-the-band-broadway-matt-bomer-jim-parsons-1202604644/

[Guest DeepSouthDad53]

Pardon my ignorance. I've seen the film. Was it based on a play? And would the revival update the context or stay with the same context (pre Stonewall?).

[+ FreshFluff]

Pardon my ignorance. I've seen the film. Was it based on a play? And would the revival update the context or stay with the same context (pre Stonewall?).

 

The film was based on an off-Broadway play by the same directory. Not sure about the context of this new play.

[jjkrkwood]

Playing Michael, Harold, Larry, and Donald are Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, and Matt Bomer. Not the casting I would have expected!

 

http://variety.com/2017/legit/news/boys-in-the-band-broadway-matt-bomer-jim-parsons-1202604644/

 

Well they went with current, publicly OUT guys that have already been "accepted" by the public.... One hurdle crossed.... Not an inspired casting, BUT I like it !

[RyanDean]

The play premiered (and was a huge hit) right before Stonewall.

The movie came out a year or so later (and was nowhere near as successful).

 

Over the last decade or so, the play has been staged in several high-profile readings (featuring some of the same celebs as in the newly announced cast) and there's never been any intimation that the play needs be rewritten to be of interest to contemporary audiences. I wouldn't be surprised if the play were trimmed, like the recent revival of Torch Song [Trilogy]., to accommodate current audience preference for shorter run times. BTW - Boys playwright Mart Crowley is still alive.

 

The current Torch Song has been a surprise hit. Advance word for Angels in America is huge. I suspect that this is producers responding to audience interest in "celeb-studded" revivals of historic "gay plays"...

Edited November 2, 2017 by RyanDean

[+ FreshFluff]

Well they went with current, publicly OUT guys that have already been "accepted" by the public.... One hurdle crossed.... Not an inspired casting, BUT I like it !

 

That's consistent with the original casting. All but Emory and Hank were played by gay men.

[+ FreshFluff]

Thanks for the info, @RyanDean .

 

It would be hard to update the script as the premise is based on the pre-Stonewall setting. A modern self-hating Michael would have to be written differently.

 

Here's the whole movie.

Edited November 2, 2017 by FreshFluff

[edjames]

While I am a big fan of this play, it did not portray gay men in the early '70's as well-adjusted happy folks.

It was a pivotal play/mvie when I first came out.

A birthday party gone wrong, a group of gay men reveal their inner most fears and psychological issues.

Still, this new production sounds like it has a great cast!

[foxy]

Tragically almost all the performers in the original play and movie died of AIDS.

[+ WilliamM]

Tragically almost all the performers in the original play and movie died of AIDS.

 

Yes, Larry Luckinbill is still alive, and married to Lucie Arnaz since 1980.

[RyanDean]

This documentary about the original play/film is fascinating.

[Cooper]

Previews for “The Boys In The Band” begin on April 30th @ The Booth Theatre on 45th St. I’m looking forward to seeing it.

[Cooper]

CAST

for The Boys in the Band

 

Donald

Matt Bomer

 

Harold

Zachary Quinto

 

Michael

Jim Parsons

 

Larry

Andrew Rannells

 

Emory

Robin De Jesus

 

Alan

Brian Hutchison

 

Cowboy

Charlie Carver

 

Bernard

Michael Benjamin Washington

 

Hank

Tuc Watkins

CREATIVE

for The Boys in the Band

 

Written by

Mart Crowley

 

Director

Joe Mantello

 

[samhexum]

http://boysintheband.com/app/themes/serino/dist/images/hero-desktop.jpg

[N13]

Have my tickets (not cheap!) for May 15th. 4th row on the aisle. Saw the original off-Broadway production. Very pivotal at the time. The stereotypes were all people I knew. It will be interesting to see how it plays now.

[foxy]

I saw the play today. I saw the original production 50 years ago. It was a ground breaking play. It opened a window to gay life in a way that had never been done before. It showed how many gay men felt about themselves at the time. I think it was true at the time. I sincerely hope it’s no longer true. I don’t like this play. Not because it’s a bad play but it’s a period of gay life that I hope is over. I would recommend this play especially to young gay men with the understanding that they should understand what gay life was like for many at that time. I would fervently hope that time is past. Having said that, I thought it was a good production with talented gay actors. But I never want to revisit this period ever again.

[Cooper]

Thanks @foxy for that great review. I share your views.

 

I also saw "The Boys In The Band". It's playing at the Booth Theatre and is in it's 1st week of previews. It has a limited run of 15 weeks and, actually, is the 1st time the play has been on Broadway. Some 50 years ago it was an Off Broadway production. The play is 100 minutes with no intermission.

 

I liked that it was an all gay cast. A "band" of 9 very talented and handsome actors. Some names you'll recognize while others are new to Broadway.

 

The play takes place in Michael's (Jim Parsons) NYC apartment (very red). He's hosting a 30th birthday party for his friend Harold (Zachary Quinto) and has invited several of his gay friends. While preparing for the party Michael receives a call from his straight and married college roommate, Alan (Brian Hutchison), who needs to speak with him. He is invited over. After a few too many drinks, the band of boys turns into the mean girls. Nothing is held back.

 

As @foxy mentioned, this play takes place in the late 1960's. At the time it was a revolutionary show that opened gay life to the public. Yes, it's dated but it does show how far we've come in 50 years.

 

One of the disturbing lines was, "Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse". After a night of heavy drinking and beating up on their friends, they all look forward to seeing each other again.

 

For comic relief there's a prostitute cowboy played by the very handsome actor Charlie Carver. He's hired for $20 to be Harold's birthday gift. He's portrayed as a dumb blonde who says all the wrong thing.

 

It's great seeing Broadway currently hosting 2 excellent gay themed plays: Angels in America and The Boys In The Band.

Edited May 3, 2018 by Cooper

[edjames]

A little background from the film's director...

 

William Friedkin dishes on the original ‘Boys in the Band’

By Michael Riedel May 3, 2018 | 8:22p

 

A scene from William Friedkin's 1970 film version of "The Boys in the Band."Everett Collection

 

An all-star cast began previews this week in “The Boys in the Band,” Mart Crowley’s 1968 play about a group of gay men who throw a party — and plenty of bitchy zingers.

 

So it seemed fitting to catch up with William Friedkin, the Oscar-winning director who made the 1970 movie.

 

The actors in the Broadway revival — Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells and Zachary Quinto, among them — are openly gay.

Fifty years ago, that would have been unthinkable.

 

“When we made ‘Boys in the Band,’ you couldn’t say you were gay and get a job,” says Friedkin, who also directed “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist.”

 

But Friedkin, who’s straight (wife No. 1 was Jeanne Moreau, wife No. 4 is Sherry Lansing), didn’t think twice about making the movie.

 

“I didn’t give a flying f–k into a rolling doughnut about any of that,” he says over lunch at the Carlyle Hotel. “And you know why? Because the play is brilliant. The characters are finely drawn and there is wonderful wit. It’s a bit reminiscent of Oscar Wilde. It can be mentioned in the same sentence.”

 

Crowley wrote “The Boys in the Band” at a low point in his life. He was “down on my ass and dead broke,” he once told me, and was house-sitting for actress Diana Lynn in Beverly Hills. He’d gone through a heavy period of drinking and, trying to keep his head clear, rattled off the play in four days by the pool.

 

“A great combination of anger and despair,” he said, fueled the writing.

 

The play opened off-Broadway and was an immediate hit, propelled in part by an exceptional cast, including Laurence Luckinbill, Leonard Frey, Cliff Gorman, Peter White and Keith Prentice.

 

When Friedkin saw the play, he made a key decision.

 

“I loved those guys,” he says. “And I told Mart, ‘We’re not going to cast anybody but them.’”

 

Theater buffs cherish the movie because it’s a record of the original production, though Friedkin says he didn’t shoot “The Boys in the Band” like a stage play.

 

“I moved it around like it was a Luis Buñuel film,” he says with a laugh.

 

He shot the opening in Greenwich Village, and it’s fun to see what the neighborhood looked like in 1969, decades before Marc Jacobs stores lined the streets and luxury apartment buildings shot up along the Hudson.

 

While the play is set in the Village, the apartment in the movie is on East 68th Street. At the time, it belonged to the actress Tammy Grimes.

 

“Mart knew her, and he brought me up to look at her place,” says Friedkin. “She was very open to it. The scenes where they’re hanging crepe paper and getting ready for the party were shot in the daylight on her deck. We moved into a studio to shoot the night scenes.”

 

Frey has an unforgettable turn as the lethally bitchy Harold, who was based on Howard Jeffrey, a Broadway choreographer who died of AIDS in 1988.

 

Frey also died of AIDS, as did some other members of the original cast.

 

The straight members of the cast — Gorman, Luckinbill and White – took a risk to be in the movie. Their agents warned them that they would lose jobs if they did. Luckinbill, in fact, was dropped from a tobacco commercial.

 

“They did the movie because the roles are just so damned good,” says Friedkin, who also directed “Cruising,” the 1980 Al Pacino thriller whose gay-themed violence touched off a controversy.

 

Written a year before the Stonewall riots, “The Boys in the Band” is a time capsule, to be sure, but Friedkin says it meant a great deal to a generation of gay men.

 

“I hear from guys all the time that this was the film that helped them come out of the closet,” says Friedkin, now 82. “It gave them the courage not to be ashamed.”

[Cooper]

A suggestion for those planning on seeing this play. If possible, try to purchase orchestra seats close to (but not the front rows) to the stage. It's an intimate show that you'll want to be closely connected to. Also, it's a better location for viewing the cast as Andrew Rannells looks very hot in his tight white slacks. Also gives a nice manspread.

 

There's a 2nd floor to Michael's apartment & some undressing scenes take place there. Also, there's a brief shower scene.

 

Enjoy the show!

[Cooper]

How the cast views the play:

 

[LaffingBear]

[+ purplekow]

I bought tickets for August, near the end of the run. I am thinking that the emotions should be running pretty high as they come to the home stretch.

 

I was invited by a friend to see this movie when I was 15 or 16 years old. It was playing at a small art theater and I had no idea what the movie was about when I walked in. At that time, I did not have a conscious attraction to men and I did not consider that I might ever have that attraction. Still, I found the movie to be moving and tender and a bitingly bitter bit of bitchery.

 

It took about 20 years for the friend who invited me to see the movie to tell me he was gay. We went to different colleges in different cities and we drifted apart. After a period of about 14 years, I looked him up and contacted him. We went out to dinner and then we came back to his apartment. He took me out on a balcony of an apartment building overlooking Greenwich Village and nervously told me he was gay. I remember asking if he was happy and he said yes. He also told me that he had a big crush on me in high school and that is why he invited me to the movie. He was hoping to get a sign that I liked him too.

 

We stayed in touch. We had a few meals together and after a brunch. he invited me to his uptown apartment, the one he shared with his boyfriend. He made an awkward pass at me which was made more awkward by his boyfriend coming home from work. After that, he did not return my calls and we lost touch again.

 

I found out he had died when I looked for him on line about 12 years later and finally found a notice in the obituaries of 1989. It would taken another several years after that for me to hire my first escort and realize that indeed I did have an attraction to men. Perhaps he had an afterlife laugh about that or perhaps he became my guardian gayngel, helping me navigate my own trek in coming to grips with same sex attraction.

 

I bought two tickets for the play and at this point I am considering going alone with a empty seat next to me. It is painful to consider that his life was cut so short. He was a brilliant man and I guess he just learned all he need to learn faster and left us slow learners to plow through.

I would like to think that we would have been, eventually, friends who stayed friends.

Edited May 12, 2018 by purplekow

[edjames]

Saturday night's performance was cancelled after Jim Parson's tripped on stage and injured his ankle!

A theater insider told me his "understudy' was no where near ready to take over the role.

 

Jim Parsons Injury Forces Cancellation Of ‘The Boys In the Band’ Performance

 

During a Saturday matinee performance of the Broadway revival of the 1968 off-Broadway hit The Boys in the Band, cast member Jim Parsons tripped causing a cancellation of the evening show.

 

According to the Associated Press and tweets from those attending the show, Parsons tripped during the encore. While his castmates took their bows, he limped off the stage.

 

The official Boys in the Band Twitter account made the announcement of the cancellation after the performance.

 

“Due to a minor injury of a cast member, the Sat evening performance has been canceled,” they announced. “Performances will resume Monday night.”

 

The Boys In The Band takes place at an alcohol-fueled birthday party for a gay man and his friends that turns inexorably – and with acid humor – from celebratory to toxic as relationships unravel, feelings are shredded and alliances are food-processed. In addition to the Emmy Award-winning Parsons, the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking production also stars Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin De Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins.

 

Due to a minor injury of a cast member, the Sat evening performance has been canceled. Performances will resume Monday night. Please contact your point-of-purchase for refund and exchange information. https://t.co/UL3P4GWBJH

 

— The Boys in the Band on Broadway (@BoysBandBway) May 13, 2018

[+ purplekow]

Saturday night's performance was cancelled after Jim Parson's tripped on stage and injured his ankle!

A theater insider told me his "understudy' was no where near ready to take over the role.

 

Jim Parsons Injury Forces Cancellation Of ‘The Boys In the Band’ Performance

 

During a Saturday matinee performance of the Broadway revival of the 1968 off-Broadway hit The Boys in the Band, cast member Jim Parsons tripped causing a cancellation of the evening show.

 

According to the Associated Press and tweets from those attending the show, Parsons tripped during the encore. While his castmates took their bows, he limped off the stage.

 

The official Boys in the Band Twitter account made the announcement of the cancellation after the performance.

 

“Due to a minor injury of a cast member, the Sat evening performance has been canceled,” they announced. “Performances will resume Monday night.”

 

The Boys In The Band takes place at an alcohol-fueled birthday party for a gay man and his friends that turns inexorably – and with acid humor – from celebratory to toxic as relationships unravel, feelings are shredded and alliances are food-processed. In addition to the Emmy Award-winning Parsons, the 50th anniversary of the groundbreaking production also stars Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin De Jesús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, and Tuc Watkins.

 

Due to a minor injury of a cast member, the Sat evening performance has been canceled. Performances will resume Monday night. Please contact your point-of-purchase for refund and exchange information. https://t.co/UL3P4GWBJH

 

— The Boys in the Band on Broadway (@BoysBandBway) May 13, 2018

 

Surprised he could not be given a walking cast and have the show go on.

[+ WilliamM]

Surprised he could not be given a walking cast and have the show go on.

 

Post by someone in the audience Saturday afternoon (All That Chat, a Broadway site):

 

" As he got up it was clear he had really hurt himself and could barely put any weight on his right foot."

 

Hope it really is a minor injury, and Jim Parsons is able to perform tomorrow night