25th
Have you heard of “The Boys in the Band?” “No,” a couple of drag queens at last June’s West Village Gay Pride Parade answered. “But I’d like a boy in a band.” Overall, not many of the parades’ participants interviewed had seen the seminal play that helped jumpstart the Gay Rights Liberation Movement and made this parade possible. Crayton Robey, director and producer of Making the Boys, aimed to rectify the situation, and educate audiences about the history of the play. Making the Boys, which will be released this March, explores story of what The Los Angeles Times calls “unquestionably a milestone.” Robey’s hope is to share the story of this foundational play, and what it did for the gay community in the late 1960s and beyond.
The Boys in the Band was the first of a kind to be produced in New York: the first to portray homosexual characters as they were—real people with hopes, dreams, insecurities, fears, and not as a homophobic lesson. Playwright Mart Crowley wrote his characters as witty, bitchy and insightful, bantering in the caustic style of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The play grew to unexpected but phenomenal success off-Broadway, and eventually was made into a film of the same title in 1970, directed by William Friedkin. Carson Kressley, of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, names The Boys in the Band as a foundational text of extreme importance for the gay community, which is overdue to get in touch with its roots.
A year after the play opened, something else drastic happened to the gay community of New York City. At 1:20 in the morning on Saturday, June 28, 1969, four policemen raided The Stonewall Inn on Gay Street in the West Village nominally to make arrests for homosexual acts. In response, gays, lesbians and friends of them rioted against the police causing a tumultuous uproar. A year later, on the same date, the first Gay Pride March went through town, becoming in the intervening years one of New York’s most celebrated traditions. Eventually, these events blossomed into the Gay Rights Liberation Movement. Many attest that this milestone wouldn’t have been possible without the onslaught of Crowley’s play, which gave its gay characters voices with which to cry out.
Making the Boys features interviews from the play’s original crew and cast, as well as with esteemed members of the gay community. Crowley, the film adaptation’s director William Friedkin and executive producer Dominick Dunne, as well as actors Peter White and Laurence Luckinbill speak of the dangers involved in making such a bold statement, and of the glorious surprise of the play’s success. Opening on April 14, 1968 at Theatre Four, critics hailed it for its witty banter and insight. It was also the first time many heterosexual critics were seeing a gay play. Chiming in on raving interviews are former New York City mayor Ed Koch, playwright Edward Albee, activist and author Larry Kramer, Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Project Runway star Christian Siriano and many more.
After all that, where are “The Boys in the Band” today? After the 1970 adaptation, many productions have been put on worldwide, from the West Village to Tokyo. And now, with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell being repealed and Prop 8 still being fought against, the play remains relevant as ever. The fight for gay rights acquires strength through community, culture, and history as shown here.
