The Boys in the Band was originally written by Mart Crowley and premiered as an off-Broadway production in 1968, one year before the Gay Liberation Movement emerged. The play is set in one evening in an apartment in New York City where Michael hosts a birthday party for his friends, all of them being gay. With the arrival of an uninvited guest the evening takes a drastic turn and a game reveals truths and emotions that deeply affect the friends and their group.

The play was adapted into a movie only two years after its off-broadway premiere and also celebrated its 50th anniversary with a revival of the original play in 2018. In 2020, the 50th anniversary of the movie came around and another revival in honour of the original play was released in the form of a Netflix Original Movie accompanied by a short documentary looking at not only the movie’s behind-the-scenes but also acknowledging the play, its writer Mart Crowley and the history behind the story. A comparison of the original play and the 2020 movie adaptation can be used to look at the historical developments of Queer America.

Play · United States · 1968