Fans of the landmark 1968 play (and 1970 movie) The Boys in the Band can again connect with Michael, Emory, Harold, Larry and Donald in Mart Crowley's sequel, The Men From the Boys, premiering in the 2002-03 Pride Season at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre Center. The Men From the Boys joins four other world premieres, including Jim Provenzano's theatrical adaptation of his novel "PINS," Felice Picano's The Bombay Trunk and Prince Gomolvilas' adaptation of Scott Heim's novel "Mysterious Skin."
The Boys in the Band is sometimes passed off as too dated for its picture of bitter, bitchy homosexuals (one of its famous lines is ""Show me a happy homosexual and I'll show you a gay corpse"), but it is also a snapshot of homosexual life before gay rights had grown militant or gained any acceptance. The Men From the Boys will catch up with butch schoolteacher Larry, self-deprecating, sarcastic Harold, effeminate Emory and the rest of the Band's boys in more enlightened times.
The Men From the Boys will be Crowley's first play since 1984's Avec Schmaltz, penned for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. His other works include Remote Asylum, A Breeze From the Gulf and For Reasons that Remain Unclear.
A horrific tale of alien abduction and child abuse, Mysterious Skin traces the lives of two young boys who find themselves forever changed by a summer spent together on the same Little League team. Gomolvilas' works include Debunking Love, Bee, Seat Belts and Big Fat Buddhas and Big Hunk O'Burnin' Love.
Also planned for the Pride Season are the West Coast premieres of Lee Blessing's Thief River and Norman Allen's In the Garden, plus Howard Crabtree's When Pigs Fly and the pre-New York run of Steven Fales' autobiographical solo show Confessions of a Mormon Boy. No set dates for any of the productions have been announced. Subscriptions are $120-$280. The New Conservatory Theatre Center is located at 25 Van Ness Avenue near Market Street. For tickets, call (415) 861-8972. The New Conservatory Theatre Center is on the web at http://www.nctcsf.org.
— By Christine Ehren
