Making Of The Boys (FirstRun/DVD/2011)
Historically, THE BOYS IN THE BAND (1968 off-Broadway; film release 1970), was a watershed in the depiction of homosexuals in their natural habitat. By turns funny, sad, pathetic and dramatic, using period bitchy language to punctuate emotional repressions, playwright Mart Crowley’s play was a revelation for its time. A genuine crossover film (directed by William Friedkin) about a group of under 40s gaymen gathered together in a Greenwich Village garden-apartment to celebrate the birthday of one of their own, Harold (Leonard Frey). The fellow who has thrown the party, neurotic Michael (Kenneth Nelson), along with his boyfriend, Donald (Frederick Combs), whose guests include effeminate Emory (Cliff Gorman), lovers Hank (Lawrence Luckinbill) and Larry (Keith Prentice), a rented boy-toy (Harold’s birthday gift), Tex (Robert La Tourneaux), black Bernard (Reuben Greene) and Michael’s straight college roommate, Alan (Peter White) all converge into this maelstrom of unhappiness, self-hate and eternal friendships.
It was an amazing slice-of-life theatre and film and now a documentary has been made of it: “Making of the Boys,” by Clayton Robey. A fine exploration of a time-capsule of a day rapidly changing, the interviews of Crowley, Luckinbill, playwrights Edward Albee, Terrance McNally and Tony Kushner, along with director Friedkin and actor/producer Robert Wagner, illuminate the impact BOYS had on the culture at large.
Robey glosses over the fact that over half of the cast was openly gay and that five of them died of AIDS (Nelson, Combs, Prentice, La Tourneaux and Frey), while another one has disappeared from view (Greene). Robey also doesn’t stint on the still-raging controversy over the portrayal of sad stereotypes (which were very much seen during its heyday) versus just telling a truth. A playwright friend of mine once announced (tongue in cheek) that Crowley should have paid royalties to all his Fire Island friends who contributed to the stinging dialogue. But Crowley’s gift – true for all writing – was putting it all together in a coherent and dramatically viable form that effectively represented his subjects by tellin’ it true.
Still, the interviewees do put BOYS into a historical context and perspective, making one want to rent the film again. We must thank Robey for this seasonal gift.