| re: 'The Boys in the Band' speak out ... | |
| Last Edit: singleticket 02:34 pm EST 01/24/18 | |
| Posted by: singleticket 02:19 pm EST 01/24/18 | |
| In reply to: re: 'The Boys in the Band' speak out ... - Delvino 08:25 pm EST 01/23/18 | |
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| I've seen it a couple of times. I don't think it deserved its past demonization by the gay liberationists. Even the more liberationist gay literary world of the 1960's dealt with similar themes and in a similar style. I'm reading TERMINAL BAR by Larry Mitchell, written ten years later and self-published, and a lot of it feels like BOYS IN THE BAND on meth. I've also read one of the first gay novels THE YOUNG AND EVIL by Charles Henri Ford and that's BOYS IN THE BAND drunk on gin. That said, I'm not sure if BOYS IN THE BAND needs its revivals. I'm not sure how good it is as a play. I'd have to see it or read it again which I'm not too interested in doing. The play reminds me of the way that the Chitlin Circuit offers African-American audiences the guilty pleasure of indulging in community stereotypes. There's some intra-community pleasure in seeing the old stereotypes and archetypes acted out on stage. But when it goes to Broadway and it's a mixed audience then I'm not sure if the same guilty, actually rather innocent, pleasure will get satisfied. The Crowley play can veer into stagey histrionics which can make the second act a slog. And in retrospect, the way that the play feels seriously dated in this day and age is that gay men no longer gather in a heterogenous group. We largely self-select into different tribes via social media. And I suspect that Crowley's assemblage was a stretch even the 1960's when different types of gay men found fewer opportunities to gather together in a social setting. It does take place in a large urban center where there were more opportunites for gay men. But again, I'd have to see it to see if Crowley has a specific kind of gay society in mind that rings true. |
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