DramaCharacters: 9 male
Interior Set
This seminal work of the Off-Broadway movement premiered in 1968 and was a long-running hit onstage, later filmed with the original cast. In 2010, the play made a triumphant return to New York City in an highly praised production produced by Drama Desk and Obie Award winning Transport Group.
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."A play of real substance, one that deserves to be performed not occasionally but regularly."-The Wall Street Journal"...terrifically thoughtful...The Boys in the Band emerges remarkably universal."-NY1"...deliriously delicious..."-Gay City News"The Boys in the Band... goes from wittily bitchy to heartbreakingly brutal..."-Out Magazine"Witty, bitchy, revelatory and dazzlingly entertaining...the excoriating wit is still there."-New York Post
"Humor is still on key in this poignant, sparkling revival of a landmark gay play...the star of the evening is the play itself solidly built, still moving and enormously entertaining."-New York Daily News
"This is a play that takes the homosexual way of life totally for granted and uses this as a valid basis for human experience...the power of the play is the way in which it remorselessly peels away the pretensions of its characters."-The New York Times