Why the Gay and Bi Men of 'Boys the Band' Still Matter

Contents:

• WH AN ENTIRE ST OF OPENLY GAY ACTORS, THE BOYS THE BAND ARE BACK — AND ON NETFLIX
• GET TO KNOW THE GAY CAST OF ‘THE BOYS THE BAND’ WH TWO NEW REVEALG FEATURETT: WATCH
• WHY THE GAY AND BI MEN OF BOYS THE BAND STILL MATTER
• 'THE BOYS IN THE BAND' STILL HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT GAY MEN'S LIV IN 2020

WH AN ENTIRE ST OF OPENLY GAY ACTORS, THE BOYS THE BAND ARE BACK — AND ON NETFLIX

Arts·QueeriThe film's director Joe Mantello on his starry adaptatn of the inic gay film's director Joe Mantello on his starry adaptatn of the inic gay textBack Row: Rob De J, Michael Benjam Washgton, Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Zachary Quto, Charlie Carver, Tuc Watks, Andrew Rannells, Brian Hutchison Front: Joe Mantello, Mart Crowley. In both s rnatns as a 1968 off-Broadway play and 1970 film, Mart Crowley's The Boys the Band is an exceptnally pneerg gay text.

Featurg ne gay characters who meet (and unravel) at an apartment to celebrate one of their birthdays, was one of the first reprentatns of gay life to get any sort of mastream attentn.

As part of Netflix's al wh the gay reprentatn mache that is Ryan Murphy, and followg s 2018 revival on Broadway, The Boys the Band buts on the streamer September 30th. And  somethg that shouldn't seem novel or remarkable, all of the men I jt mentned are openly gay themselv. "The fact they were all out gay men rms the way the story gets told.

GET TO KNOW THE GAY CAST OF ‘THE BOYS THE BAND’ WH TWO NEW REVEALG FEATURETT: WATCH

"I thk that there are certa tths about gay inty that are , " Mantello says. " Mantello says that for younger gay viewers g to the text for the first time, he thks 's important that The Boys The Band teach them "where we me om and how thgs have evolved. "There's a percentage of gay men who fd this a problematic text, " Mantello says.

Where I found that an olr generatn, particularly of gay men — aga, not scientific, but — have real issu wh . Mart was not wrg about the monolh of gay whe men or gay men.

And Crowley's ath (on March 7th) was followed by two other goliaths among gay men: Terrence McNally (on March 24th) and Larry Kramer (on May 27th). He is also a talented playwright who wrote a play lled Blueprts to Freedom: An O to Bayard Rt which told the story of Civil Rights activist Bayard Rt who was also a gay man. He’s Openly Gay.

WHY THE GAY AND BI MEN OF BOYS THE BAND STILL MATTER

The film, about a group of gay men who rne for a birthday party New York Cy, also rn the Broadway st: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Rob Jús, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjam Washgton, and Tuc Watks.

The synopsis of The Boys the Band: “More than fifty years after Mart Crowley's play beme an unexpected smash h for puttg gay men's liv center stage wh honty and humor, The Boys the Band returns to the screen a new adaptatn that rn acclaimed director Joe Mantello wh the all-star st of the Tony-wng, 2018 Broadway productn.

In 1968 New York Cy – when beg gay was still nsired to be bt kept behd closed doors – a group of iends gather for a r birthday party hosted by Michael (Jim Parsons), a screenwrer who spends and drks too much, honor of the sharp-drsed and sharp-tongued Harold (Zachary Quto). It showed a group of gay and bi men, on one prer night their liv. In 1968, that was already a happy about a dozen gay men are stagg s 50th anniversary revival on Broadway.

'THE BOYS IN THE BAND' STILL HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT GAY MEN'S LIV IN 2020

"What I am, Michael, is a 32-year-old, ugly, pockmarked Jew fairy, and if tak me a ltle while to pull myself together, and if I smoke a ltle grass before I get up the nerve to show my face to the world, 's nobody's goddamned bs but my own, " Harold retort perfectly sums up what Harold is all about -- and what most of the men that room, a birthday party full of gay and bi men, stggled wh at a time when LGBT people were pathologized, unable to ngregate public, fired om their jobs, and even arrted for simply dancg together or wearg clothg that exprsed a genr inty nflictg wh the one they were assigned at playwright Mart Crowley's 1968 play was a smash h, by the time me out on film -- a year after Stonewall -- gay men particular were at a different place polilly. An open relatnship), to Cowboy (the young and betiful but dim htler), to Michael, the angsty, analysis-driven, self-hatg homosexual around whom the iends seem to pivot.

Watks, a father of two, and Carver aren't the only queers among the st eher -- all ne actors are gay.