“Failure is the only thing with which I feel at home because it’s what I was taught at home.”
Based on the 1968 play of the same name by Mart Crowley, The Boys in the Band was adapted into a film in 1970 with the original off-Broadway cast. For the play’s 50th anniversary, it was revived on Broadway in 2018 with actors Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, Charlie Carver, Brian Hutchison, Michael Benjamin Washington, Robin de Jesús, and Tuc Watkins. After their great success there, the full cast got back together for the Netflix adaption, which released globally on September 30th 2020.
The Boys in the Band follows Michael (Jim Parsons) who prepares to host a birthday party for his friend Harold (Zachary Quinto). Some hours before the party, Alan (Brian Hutchison), an old friend from college, calls him under tears and ask to meet him. Michael agrees to meet and tells Alan to come by his apartment, however, Alan cancels, but happens to come by in the end.
Slowly all the guests arrive, including Donald (Matt Bomer), Michael’s former sweetheart; Bernard (Michael Benjamin Washington); Larry (Andrew Rannells) and Hank (Tuc Watkins), who are a couple with a complicated relationship; Emory (Robin de Jesús) and his gift for the birthday boy, Cowboy (Charlie Carver). The wild party comes to an early end when Alan finds out that Michael and all of his friends are homosexual and attacks Emory.
“We all have to call on the telephone the one person we truly believe we have loved.”
Frustrated, Michael starts a game in which everyone has to call the one person they every truly loved and announces a point system to find out who comes out of this game as a winner. Bernard is the first one to make his call. Depressed, he passes on the phone to Emory, whose experience is not any better. The game soon becomes more serious when Hank and Larry start to fight. While Hank left his wife and family to be with Larry, he does not want to be tied to one person even tough he loves that person deeply. Lastly, Michael forces Alan to call a former good friend from their college times. He knows that Alan has been more than just good friends with that person, but Alan ended their relationship because he was afraid of what he felt.
Before everyone leaves, Harold confronts Michael with his self-hatred. With only Donald staying with him, Michael has a nervous breakdown and later leaves to go to church.
The movie adaption is absolutely brilliant. You can see that the cast knows each other and their parts so well. For me, it felt like watching a theatre play at home. The cast transports all the different emotions, which come and go so quickly and perfectly. They pick up the audience and invite them to take a closer look on what it feels like to be so-called ‘different’.
However, Michael is without a doubt the most complex character of them all. He is Catholic and homosexual, he struggles with his life as it is on top of a midlife crisis. He feels like being above them all, while in fact, he is the only one not accepting who he is and stands in the way of his own happiness. If Harold had not called him out on it, you would understand where the plot leads after watching Jim Parsons face after he confronts Brian Hutchison’s character. You can see the self-doubt, the unrequited love, and helplessness. Constantly bouncing back and forth between what he should do according to society as well his believes and what he wants to and his life to be.
I think what you definitely can take with you after watching the Broadway show or the movie adaption is that you should always stay true to yourself because it can eat you from the inside out and can turn you into a frustrated person who reflects his dissatisfaction on others and drags others down to make himself feel better. That way, you distract yourself from your feelings which is not healthy at all.
The Boys in the Band is a fantastic movie for all of us who miss to go to theatres. This way you get something similar right into your living room! Prepare some popcorn, a beverage of your choice, and tissues as you will need them all.
