'The Boys in the Band': Gay culture's dark past

‘THE BOYS IN THE BAND’: (left to right) Robin de Jesus, Michael Benjamin Washington, Andrew Rannells & Jim Parsons. Photo: Joan Marcus

THE BOYS IN THE BAND
Written by Mart Crowley
Directed by Joe Mantello
Through August 11, 2018
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street
(212) 239-6200, http://boysintheband.com/

By Scott Harrah

My first encounter with Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band was back in college, decades after it was originally produced in 1968. I read the play one evening in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down because I’d never read anything that had so many gay-male characters, speaking in such crisp, rapid-fire bitchy dialogue. As engrossing as the play was to me in my early 20s, I also found it completely offensive, particularly the lead character Michael, a reprehensible man who is full of self-loathing and makes racist and anti-Semitic comments and jokes to his friends. Seeing the show in its first-ever Broadway revival, with a stellar cast under Joe Mantello’s tight direction, has taken much of the insolent sting out of Mr. Crowley’s classic.

It’s still a flawed play, dated and inherently off-putting by 21^st century standards, but if one looks beyond the now “politically incorrect” content, the show remains a curious masterpiece, and was groundbreaking for being the first drama to show a microcosm of the gay-male subculture. Before Boys, gay men were mostly portrayed in films for comic relief as effeminate, stereotypical characters (hairdressers, florists, interior designers, etc.). As a vehicle for Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin de Jesus (all openly gay, by the way) and others, this ebullient revival is certainly an event. For millennials and anyone too young to remember the dark days of gay life before and after Stonewall and the horror of the AIDS pandemic, it is an historical reminder of how far gay men have progressed.

The plot revolves around Michael (Jim Parsons), an unemployed writer who somehow can afford a posh, two-level Upper East Side Manhattan apartment (David Zinn’s scenic design is gorgeous, but seems too modern for the 1960s). Michael is a high-strung, well-educated man from the South and was raised in an affluent Catholic family. As the story opens, he’s preparing to host a 32^nd birthday party for his friend Harold (Zachary Quinto), a man he derisively refers to as a “pock-marked Jew.” His friend Donald (Matt Bomer), an easygoing “underachiever,” arrives after a canceled session with his therapist and is helping Michael with party preparations. The phone rings and Michael learns his supposedly straight college roommate from Georgetown, Alan (Brian Hutchison), is in tears and desperately needs to see him. Michael hesitantly invites his old friend over.

Guests start arriving. There is Emory (Robin de Jesus), the swishy interior decorator; “Cowboy” (Charlie Carver), a mentally vapid, pretty-boy blond male hustler and Emory’s “birthday present” for Harold; Hank (Tuc Watkins), a schoolteacher in the process of divorcing his wife; Hank’s lover, Larry (Andrew Rannells), a fashion photographer with monogamy issues; and Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington), a bookstore clerk, the only African-American in the group and the butt of many cruel, unfunny racist jokes and “n” word slurs by Michael.

The play has been referred to as an anachronistic “Auntie Tom” story for gays because it depicts gay men as victims of both society and their own self-abasement. Granted, Boys was written in an era when most gay men had no choice but to stay in the closet, but have supposedly close friends (gay or straight) of any time period ever been so vicious to each other? Then again, the premise of friends being catty to each other is the foundation of all the puerile, sophomoric TV reality shows nowadays, so in that sense The Boys in the Band was decades ahead of its time.

As the drinks flow, the guys’ true feelings come out and one of the narrative highlights is a “truth” game and Michael insists that each guest pick up the telephone and call someone from the past or present to proclaim their love. Painful secrets and pathos are revealed with each telephone call, but discussing them further would spoil much of the story.

Joe Mantello directs the amazing ensemble of actors beautifully, but the biggest disappointment is Jim Parsons as Michael. Mr. Parsons, a TV superstar in his own right as nerdy genius Sheldon Cooper on the megahit series “The Big Bang Theory,” is no stranger to the Broadway stage, appearing in everything from winning revivals of Harvey and The Normal Heart to the lead in An Act of God. Unfortunately, Mr. Parsons is miscast as Michael, because he exudes too much charisma and likability for the despicable character of Michael. Michael is a man who says mean-spirited, repulsive things like “Oh, you really gotta figger, it’s tough to be a n****r, but it’s tougher to be a Jew” and self-deprecating zingers such as “You show me a happy homosexual and I’ll show you a gay corpse.” However, Mr. Parsons is too charming, guileless and—dare I say it?—too much like TV’s Sheldon Cooper when he should simply be vile. As Harold himself says, “Michael doesn’t have charm. He has counter-charm.”

Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Robin de Jesus, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington and Tuc Watkins are all outstanding. This production’s biggest standout is Zachary Quinto as Harold. Mr. Quinto, first known for playing Spock in several Star Trek film sequels, is also a Broadway stage veteran, but here he gives one of his most memorable live performances ever. Although Mr. Quinto is perhaps too handsome for the role of Harold, he is nonetheless a revelation of wit and venom in his tinted glasses and outrageous mod 1960s garb, delivering his acerbic lines with zeal. However, in this case, he would have had greater impact on the show had he played the character of Michael. One can imagine how great he might have been in the role. Perhaps he might have evened out this production a bit and given Michael the hateful edge that’s necessary for the part.

Some have said that, without The Boys in the Band, there would never have been Angels in America and the countless gay-themed plays that followed, such as Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! Love it or dismiss it, Mart Crowley’s 50-year-old drama shows the dark, unsettling roots of LGBT life in the 1960s, and there is certainly a lot to ponder with these complicated “boys” back in town on the Broadway stage.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published May 31, 2018