Reviews

The Boys in the Band by Mart Crowley

elaineb_reads's review

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3.75

I read the 1968 and 2018 version of the play for a college course.

rhistutz11's review

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challenging emotional funny informative tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

kbrand04's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

4.0

yvkhan's review against another edition

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4.0

Featuring:

- What homosexuals were like in the past (little has changed)

- The way homosexuals cling to the facade of heterosexuality they might have. The way they agree to hide their homosexuality even tho they’re the majority (even allowing one of their number to be beaten up by someone that’s apparently heterosexual) is p telling. Compelling!

- The way the innocent and rather idealistic game of calling one’s first loves (effectively) turns nightmarish for our gay cast feels realistic and poignant because

matchafiction's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

ashkitty93's review against another edition

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5.0

Assisted with a local staged reading over the weekend. A good script, and I can easily understand how groundbreaking it might have been at the time of publication/original performance.

Some loosely-wired corner of my brain always confuses this with THE BOYS IN THE BOAT - with the end result being a flamingly-queer gold-medal-winning Olympic rowing team in Hitler's Berlin. Amusing, brain.

antoniomansopreto's review against another edition

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4.0

https://youtu.be/RxJaneysEXY?si=zoAo-8EroebRoSqR

sfletcher26's review against another edition

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3.0

One of the first commercially successful plays ever to portray gay lifestyles to a mainstream audience. Enjoyable though possibly a little formulaic and obvious but still an important play in its day.
Mark Gatiss has resently revived the play, at the Park Theatre, and it would be interesting to see it performed.

132minutes's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

dievalzam's review

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4.0

I have a strange relationship with this play. As a gay man in 2020, it's hard not to feel bad for these queer men that treat each other so bad. That doesn't mean that it's difficult to feel empathy for them. Society makes us outcasts that sometimes don't know how to handle self-indulged hate that is the product of all the things that we heard about the LGBTQ+ community while growing up.
As a play, I think that the two acts are really different from one another, and that transition isn't as smooth as I would want to. But I don't know. I still feel intrigued by this story thanks to its humor and the complexity of its characters. Maybe we don't see happy gay men on stage, but that could make us think why so many queer men are that unhappy.