| THE BOYS IN THE BAND Tonight (Possible Spoiler) | |
| Posted by: sergius 11:33 pm EDT 05/28/18 | |
|
|
|
| It's not a great play, but it's a funny one and, of course, it's very, very important. THE BOYS IN THE BAND was unwelcome in the immediate aftermath of Stonewall and throughout the 1970s which were a sort of heyday for the gay liberation movement when that movement was principally concerned with the destigmatization--indeed, the celebration--of varieties of sexual freedom. It was further dismissed during the plague years of the 1980s when it seemed especially trite--and embarrassing--to the great many who were preoccupied with the serious business of trying to stay alive. Now, though, the play is appreciable for how well it depicts aspects of gay men's experience when it remained sub-cultural and criminal. To see it on Broadway these fifty years later is salutary and stirring. Mantello deftly directs a fully committed group of actors and he has found an ending for the play that smartly and easefully counters its notoriously grim conclusion without betraying or altering the script. Those familiar with the original production, or with 1970 film, will find some bones to pick here--mostly with the casting--but the play hold its own as both a relic and a reminder of the not too distant past and a precursor to the seismic shifts of a future that is still developing and is, by no means, secure. Despite its withering humor and its guilt soaked sorrow, there is a current of rage in this play that we are wise not to ignore or otherwise diminish; it is, after all, the subsequent redirection of this rage away from the self and onto a societal other that helped to give rise to the kind civil protections in place today. The boys in the band were yet a band of brothers. | |
| reply | |
|
|
|
| Previous: | Touché. Nmi - dramedy 03:03 pm EDT 05/29/18 |
| Next: | re: THE BOYS IN THE BAND Tonight (Possible Spoiler) - EveryLittleChore 01:57 am EDT 05/29/18 |
| Thread: |
|
Time to render: 0.012198 seconds.