Aaron Sharff, Jonathan Hammond, Jon Levenson
and Nick Westrate
photo by Caroll Rosegg
The Transport Group Theatre Company which has produced brilliant stagings of First Lady Suite, All the Way Home, The Audience and Bury the Dead has given us a chance to see yet another American classic. This time it is a witty, three-dimensional take on Mart Crowley’s 1968 groundbreaker The Boys in the Band.
“Classic” when applied to The Boys in the Band is clearly a subjective description. The Boys in the Band is very much of its time and it is now dated. (Some think it was dated when it opened.) However, it is a landmark work about a niche population, the gay world, which, until then, was totally ignored or depicted using the worst possible clichés. If one puts it in the company of other “dated,” period classics such as Dinner at Eight, Tea and Sympathy, and even Hair!, Mart Crowley’s work holds its own. And, when The Boys in the Band is so expertly molded by the Transport Group’s artistic director, Jack Cummings III, it is clear that there are many potent reasons to see what in other hands might have been a trite revival. It is possible to say, after seeing this revealing performance, that The Boys in the Band was a precursor to later, more positive depictions of gay life such as McNally’s Love! Valor! Compassion! and even this season’s upcoming Next Fall by Geoffrey Nauffts.
Mr. Cummings eschewed a proscenium theater and placed the action in a loft space designed to replicate the apartment of Michael (Jonathan Hammond), an insecure spendthrift who is throwing a birthday party for Harold (Jon Levenson), a self-professed “pock-marked, Jew fairy,” who is obsessed with his dermatological and tonsorial shortcomings. Invited are Michael’s best friend Donald (Nick Westrate), a bright, well-read handsome guy not living up to his potential; Bernard (Kevyn Morrow), the sole Black character who is wittily and willingly taken advantage of by his friend, the very effeminate decorator Emory (John Wellmann); and an uneasy, not quite adjusted couple Hank (Graham Rowat) a straight-laced school teacher who left his wife and kids for the attractive Larry (Christopher Innvar) who can’t stop his roving eye. Definitely not invited is Alan (Kevin Isola), Michael’s old college mate who is—or isn’t—straight, but drops by to see his old friend after uncharacteristically sobbing on the phone. Completing the cast is the Cowboy (Aaron Sharff), a not-too-bright hustler who was purchased as a birthday gift for Harold by Emory.
In this environmental staging the audience is placed around and in Michael’s well-appointed apartment. Though completely ignored, the audience members are often inches away from the action, plunged into the play’s series of angst-ridden developments which include Michael’s initial embarrassment and back peddling when the uptight heterosexual Alan invades what is unmistakably a homosexual gathering. Michael initiates a series of emotional revelations, bullying each of the guests into a crescendo of bathetic admissions during a vicious, mean-spirited party game.
Though one or two of the casting choices initially appear odd, by the end of Mr. Cummings production of The Boys in the Band we can see, for instance, that casting the physically slight Kevin Isola as the lone straight character is a stroke of genius, giving a telling bit of ambivalence to Alan. Is he or isn’t he gay? Did he, as Michael accuses, have a homosexual affair at college? We never know, but we are left wondering.
Each of the nine actors makes his character so completely three dimensional that we never feel that they are in any way stereotypes. They are all constantly there right in front of us, adding nuance and subtlety to Mr. Crowley’s sometimes simplistic lines. John Wellmann’s fey Emory has depth. We see and feel his pain and know why poor, put upon Bernard takes crap from him and why they will be friends for life. Larry and Hank argue about Larry’s infidelities—which tellingly include the cute Donald, much to Hank’s consternation, yet discover through Michael’s terrible diversion that they still love and need each other. The effete, pompous Harold stands serenely back from the emotional devastation like some sort of oversized, apathetic Greek chorus before icily delivering his coup de grace upon poor, drunken Michael who has made a fool of himself. Only the Cowboy, too thick and, in his way, naïve, to get involved in the emotional mayhem, escapes unscathed.
The scenic design by Sandra Goldmark was spot on (including a dial telephone!) and Kathryn Rohe’s outfits were period perfect. The lighting by Dane Laffrey was cleverly supplied by what seemed to be scores of lamps leisurely turned on at the beginning of the play by Michael and equally unhurriedly extinguished by Sandra to indicate the end of the play.
The Boys In The Band
By Mart Crowley
Directed by Jack Cummings III
37 West 26th St., Penthouse
New York, NY
Tickets & Information: www.transportgoup.org or 1-866-811-4111