See it if you want top-notch Quinto along with great performances by Parsons, Rannells, deJesus and the rest of the cast in a defining play.
Don't see it if you don't mind missing a well-written play finally brought to Broadway with a remarkable cast delivering reality in a quite-intimate set.
See it if u can relate to (or bear) a party of self-loathing gay men in the 60s trading barbs & witty banter until it gets too personal & drama ensues
Don't see it if you expect to feel the urgency, bleakness, shock or emotional impact that the original production must have evoked in its day. Read more
See it if Anachronistic comedy w/ stereotypical and un-PC behaviours of a certain gay demo. Celeb nudity. Star wattagev aplenty.
Don't see it if This is one play I'm sure some wish would never see the light of day or would just go away. Cringeworthy of another era.
See it if You’re a gay male and want to see one of the first important gay plays, performed by a top-notch ensemble.
Don't see it if You’re easily offended by gay subject matter or you’d really despise listening to bitchy, hateful queens for two hours.
See it if you like great acting/ensemble work; retrospectives; you appreciate feeling a gamut of emotions; you have friends who lived this past.
Don't see it if you are uncomfortable with homosexuality; you prefer fun or intellectual stories that stay away from intense emotion.
See it if you missed the 60s, want 2 be voyeur, witness what gay life was like 4 gay men, can find a golden lining of learning in former tragedies
Don't see it if no interest in how gay other half lived, think realistic portrayal of gay coping mechanisms is 2 disparaging, dislike anything that is gay
See it if you like to see terrific acting.Play has not aged well.This is not the way my gay friends live.Play sets gay rights back.Mean spirited
Don't see it if you are looking for a positive gay show.This portrays them as sex crazed, unkind, non-supportive, and vicious.This is not the gay world now.
See it if you enjoy a gay themed comedy-drama set in the late 60's. All the stereotypes are present, though slightly dated. Great ensemble cast
Don't see it if gay themed shows do not appeal to you
"A starry but disconnected revival...I wish I could report that this charismatic and capable team transported me vividly and uncompromisingly into the dark ages of homosexual life in these United States, and that I shuddered and sobbed in sympathy. But...the show left me largely impatient and unmoved...There is one superlative performance, however, that provides the show with its most genuinely moving moments. That comes from Mr. de Jesús."
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"It has mostly aged well: It has resonance and snap. While the star casting is not completely effective—Quinto is too knowingly attractive to play Harold, and Bomer’s marble-god physique seems wrong for the bookish Donald—the cast meshes convincingly, and there are many fine, small moments...At its most effective, Mantello’s 'The Boys in the Band' moves beyond the gay past and stares the present straight in the face. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the mirror."
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"A strange, somewhat removed experience...There are surely things to be enthusiastic about in Joe Mantello’s glitzy, solidly acted revival...Given that there’s something still alive, and still painful, at the heart of 'The Boys in the Band,' how does one explain the museum-piecey-ness that still overwhelms this production?...The whole thing feels like a carefully packaged luxury item, from the casting to the necessarily limited run."
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"What might have been another bulletin from the distant queer past is transformed into a scintillating portrait of the self-loathing that festers in ghettoized subcultures, perhaps as much now as then...The production is sharpest when the zingers are flying back and forth, but the anger coursing through the play's veins still scalds...There's unapologetic ownership and humanity in the incisive characterizations, which banishes any simplistic perception of the play as a voyeuristic pity party."
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"Both a lovingly preserved time capsule and a sometimes stark distillation of what has and hasn’t changed since its debut. His script is still funny and cutting and heartbreaking...Certain facets do feel dated, but to scrub them entirely would also feel like a denial of the truths and the time the play is rooted in. And for all the pop-culture asides and wit, it’s hardly a hollow platform for banter and bitcheries; Mantello takes care to let his characters’ messier humanity come through."
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"Festivities are certainly in order for this superbly mounted 50th anniversary production...If there’s one thing this staid theater season is more than ready for, it’s a motley crew of gay friends getting together to celebrate...Crowley is a master of the bitchy one-liner, so the play is littered with quotable bon mots...Happily, a lot about the play now seems dated — but not everything, and not in all circles of society, which makes this anniversary presentation doubly welcome."
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"There isn’t much to like about this emotionally evasive revival, which disserves Mr. Crowley’s beautifully, fearlessly wrought play in so many ways that I went home not merely disappointed but angry...The result is a staging that is too funny, one that gets its laughs at the expense of the raw, heartfelt anguish that is the whole point of the play. I have a feeling, though, that Mr. Mantello is at least as much to blame for this problem as are the actors themselves—maybe even more so."
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"There isn’t a single moment of political correctness in it, but as a social and cultural dossier on what life was like for gay men in the Dark Ages, it still resonates with wit, poignancy, and heart-breaking truth...A play that has, in retrospect, gained insight and lost none of its power or potency. It holds up beautifully...The ensemble acting is rich, Mart Crowley’s script seems to have been written with rattlesnake venom, and the result is engrossing, sad, hilarious, and gratifying."
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A modern-day reimagining of Shakespeare’s Hamlet centered around a queer, Black man.
A long-running revival of Kander and Ebb's satirical musical about lust, treachery, and murder.
New York premiere of a play shortlisted for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.