The Boys the Band: Joe Mantello on brgg gay history back to life

Contents:

• HOW JOE MANTELLO RENEWED ‘THE BOYS THE BAND’, A ONCE-REVILED GAY CLASSIC, FOR A NEW GENERATN
• ‘BOYS THE BAND’ DIRECTOR JOE MANTELLO ON HIS ALL-GAY CAST AND THE ‘VIRGIA WOOLF’ THAT WOULD’VE BEEN
• ‘AMERIN HORROR STORY: NYC’ FALLY HAS A STRONG GAY MA CHARACTER
• ‘BOYS THE BAND’ DIRECTOR JOE MANTELLO ON HIS ALL-GAY CAST AND THE ‘VIRGIA WOOLF’ THAT WOULD’VE BEEN
• THE BOYS THE BAND: JOE MANTELLO ON BRGG GAY HISTORY BACK TO LIFE
• THE BOYS IN THE BAND: ENTIRELY GAY ST 'SPEAKS TO THE CHANGED WORLD'

HOW JOE MANTELLO RENEWED ‘THE BOYS THE BAND’, A ONCE-REVILED GAY CLASSIC, FOR A NEW GENERATN

How Joe Mantello Renewed ‘The Boys the Band’, a Once-Reviled Gay Classic, for a New Generatn. Gay actors Jim Parsons, Zachary Quto, Andrew Rannells, and Matt Bomer — along wh the rt of the Broadway st — reprised their rol the Netflix movie produced by Ryan Murphy.

The bar, loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village, has been servg gay men sce the 1950s and is ltle changed om when the Mattache Society had their famo “sip-s” the Sixti as a form of civil disobedience to ga the legal right to drk bars openly. The movie’s but this month (on September 30th on Netflix) is also a btersweet moment for Mantello sce, a year which we’ve lost so many people, two other men who shaped his life also died quick succsn: trailblazg gay playwrights Terrence McNally on March 24th and Larry Kramer on May 27th. When Crowley first offered his play the late Sixti, gay men were not only rarely seen Amerin culture, they were forbidn to display their liv public, and were regularly arrted, beaten, shunned, and fired om their jobs if they dared to do so.

As the story go, Crowley wrote The Boys the Band as a kd of dare after New York Tim cric Stanley Kffmann stigated gay playwrights (such as Tennsee Williams, Edward Albee, and William Inge) 1966 a piece tled “Homosexual Drama and Its Disguis, ” for craftg the nflicts of gay men through heterosexual characters their works and therefore makg “admirably ‘normal’ people” look bad. So that way, Boys is Crowley’s openly gay versn of Who’s Aaid of Virgia Woolf: a dner party that quickly explos, wh wty shrapnel blastg all s path. Dpe takg up the task of puttg gay characters on stage for public spectn, for s after was ially produced, many were embarrassed of the negative “self-loathg” stereotyp and the f-bombs (that would be the word “faggot”) hurled repeatedly.

‘BOYS THE BAND’ DIRECTOR JOE MANTELLO ON HIS ALL-GAY CAST AND THE ‘VIRGIA WOOLF’ THAT WOULD’VE BEEN

His first “fix” was to st openly gay actors all the rol, somethg that was celebrated simply for the fact that uld be done at this pot time. “If I saw a whe actor as Emory, Joe and I would have had a really long talk first, ” says Michael Benjam Washgton, who has also spent the last five years producg a play about gay civil rights in Bayard Rt. The movie — ma by and wh openly gay people volved at so many levels — also allows for a much more sensual gaze.

” beme yet another panmic sualty when closed before even began April, Mantello’s terrific new film versn of the late Mart Crowley’s 1968, acid-tongued gay cult classic play “The Boys the Band” should lsen the blow. Though Mantello was jt five years old when “Boys” first premiered Off-Broadway, ’s William Friedk’s ntroversial 1970 film versn that later troduced him to Crowley’s eye-openg visn of gay life.

‘AMERIN HORROR STORY: NYC’ FALLY HAS A STRONG GAY MA CHARACTER

“I went to North Carola School of the Arts, and I saw for the first time there, probably early on when I was a sophomore, and I found terrifyg, but I also loved , ” Mantello, a New Yorker, said a phone terview om his quarante hiaway Palm Sprgs. In 2018, he gathered an all-out st of gay male actors on Broadway for a Tony-wng revival of “Boys. ” Jog forc wh producer Ryan Murphy, Mantello enlisted that very same group for this year’s movie versn: Jim Parsons, Zachary Quto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Tuc Watks, Rob Jús, Michael Benjam Washgton, and Brian Hutchson all return to rurrect this groundbreakg dark edy about a group of gay bti (and, some rners, enemi) who assemble for a ght birthday party.

‘BOYS THE BAND’ DIRECTOR JOE MANTELLO ON HIS ALL-GAY CAST AND THE ‘VIRGIA WOOLF’ THAT WOULD’VE BEEN

However, like many gay dienc new to Crowley’s world of bchy, self-loathg queens and their firecracker quips, Mantello didn’t necsarily see himself the story. “Gay Men Are Not a Monolh”. While prsure was high on Crowley’s origal text to speak to all the hidn issu surroundg gay male life the late 1960s, jt before Stonewall and well ahead of the HIV/AIDS epimic, “The Boys the Band, ” Mantello said, don’t have to do that anymore.

“It was a misnceptn that [Crowley] was tryg to wre about all gay men, bee he was the first, and this was the only gay play, and not jt another gay play. I would say unfair scty over the years, [bee] I don’t thk would be possible for him to wre somethg enpassg every aspect of gay men’s liv.

Gay men are not a monolh. “I fd disncertg to thk we n’t have flawed or imperfect characters who happen to be gay, ” Mantello said.

THE BOYS THE BAND: JOE MANTELLO ON BRGG GAY HISTORY BACK TO LIFE

” Still, reimagg the play today’s climate don’t mean erasg the trmas of gay past.

THE BOYS IN THE BAND: ENTIRELY GAY ST 'SPEAKS TO THE CHANGED WORLD'

The Sgular Alchemy of an All-Out Gay Male Cast. Puttg together an all-gay st for the play was a happy accint, Mantello said, and cultivated a special alchemy between the performers, who have veloped a unique rapport after llaboratg on “Boys the Band” for more than three years. Mantello and producer Ryan Murphy dned “gay actors, straight actors, and everythg between” for the play, Mantello said, but “ worked out that all ne of the actors are gay.