Off-Broadway performances of the site-specific staging in a Manhattan commercial loft (dressed up as a bachelor apartment) will now play to March 28, Transport Group artistic director Jack Cummings III announced on Feb. 25. It was originally to close March 14. Sold-out houses followed the mostly enthusiastic reviews that appeared after the Feb. 21 opening night. The venue, on the 12th floor of a building on West 26th Street, accommodates 99 people, making them flies on the walls of the groundbreaking comic drama about tension between gay men at a birthday party in 1968. Some theatregoers sit in traditional folding chairs along the perimeter of the space, which offers north and south Manhattan views; a few are seated at a dining room table on the set, representing Michael's gaudy-modern-eclectic pad.
The play, which inspired a generation of gay playwrights, received an Off-Broadway revival in 1996. The Transport Group production marks the play's first major New York revival since then.
The TG cast includes Jonathan Hammond (Ragtime) as Michael; Christopher Innvar (110 in the Shade, Floyd Collins) as Larry; Kevin Isola (Brooklyn Boy) as Alan; Jon Levenson (Irish Rep's The Hairy Ape) as Harold; Kevyn Morrow (Olivier nomination for Ragtime, First Wives Club) as Bernard; Graham Rowat (LoveMusik, Guys and Dolls) as Hank; Aaron Sharff as Cowboy; John Wellmann (TG's cul-de-sac) as Emory; and Nick Westrate (A Moon for the Misbegotten) as Donald.
Boys in the Band plays 37 W. 26th Street, between Broadway and Sixth Avenue, Penthouse. Performances run Wednesday through Friday at 8 PM; Saturday at 4 PM and 8 PM; and Sunday at 5 PM. Tickets, which are $38-$45, are available at www.transportgroup.org or by phoning TheaterMania at (866) 811-4111 or (212) 352-3101.
For more information about Transport Group and The Boys in the Band, visit www.transportgroup.org.
