The Boys in the Band

The Boys in the Band
By Mart Crowley. James Terry Collective. Chapel off Chapel. 27 February – 15 March 2025

When first produced in 1968, The Boys in the Band was ‘controversial’ to say the least; it’s a play in which, for the first time, all (well, with one maybe) nine characters are openly gay – or as it was said in 1968, ‘homo-sexual’ (pronounced with distinct loathing and distaste).  So, is this still punchy, funny, bitter play dated?  No, it’s not – and even if it were, this production is spirited, lively, funny, searing, insightful, and just about perfectly cast. 

Director Alister Smith handles his nine characters – often all on stage at once – with skill and sensitivity, directing our attention where it needs to be as each of the boys has their moment in the comedy or, as it becomes, a melee of accusations, rage, and revelation.  This is pre-Stonewall – and pre-AIDS, although that’s hovering.

Set wholly in a New York City apartment, The Boys plays in just about real time across one evening.  Michael (Maverick Newman) is throwing a birthday party for his friend Harold (a stand-out performance from Mason Gasowski), but Michael’s friend and one-time lover Donald (Jack Stratton-Smith) arrives first.  Donald will prove a calm and ironic foil and observer, not just for Michael but of the rest of Michael’s guests. 

There’s African American Bernard (Adolphus Waylee), suffering double discrimination – including from momentarily racist Michael.  There’s the very out-there ‘effeminate’ and bitchy Emory (Ryan Henry); there’s the married but recently out Hank (Stephen Mahy), hopelessly and painfully in love with avowedly promiscuous Larry (Andy Johnston). The ring-in is Cowboy (Harry McGinty), rent boy and Michael’s birthday present for Harold. 

But the fish-out-of-water catalyst is Alan (Mitchell Holland), Michael’s supposedly straight college roommate, who telephones out of the blue because there is something he just must tell Michael... something important...

Crowley’s characters may be ‘types’ or even stereotypes, but this cast makes vivid individuals of them and, anyway, Mart Crowley’s purpose in part is to assemble nine representatives of the gay world – the state of play if you like – in 1968 and show us their problems internal and external, the discriminations, harassments, the pretences, and the tragic way they internalise the hatred of the straight world.   

At the curtain call, entrepreneurial producer James Terry appeared on stage with the cast and all his ‘creatives’ and made a succinct and pointed speech.  Deservedly proud of what he’s put together, he reminded us that back in 1968 it was actually illegal to be ‘homosexual’ and that these characters we’d just seen were the forerunners of the progress we have today.  They went through the exclusion, the violence and the hatred back then.  But I’m guessing that, ‘period play or not, many in the audience on opening night saw themselves on stage – even though, yes, there is more ‘acceptance’, and even celebration of LGBTQIA+ culture.  The Boys makes much the same point as the recent The Inheritance – that is that younger gays not take that progress for granted – that is, it was, has been – and still is – a struggle.

Michael Brindley

Photography: James Terry & Cameron Grant

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