"A starry but disconnected revival...I wish I could report that this charismatic and capable team transported me vividly and uncompromisingly into the dark ages of homosexual life in these United States, and that I shuddered and sobbed in sympathy. But...the show left me largely impatient and unmoved...There is one superlative performance, however, that provides the show with its most genuinely moving moments. That comes from Mr. de Jesús."
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"It has mostly aged well: It has resonance and snap. While the star casting is not completely effective—Quinto is too knowingly attractive to play Harold, and Bomer’s marble-god physique seems wrong for the bookish Donald—the cast meshes convincingly, and there are many fine, small moments...At its most effective, Mantello’s 'The Boys in the Band' moves beyond the gay past and stares the present straight in the face. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the mirror."
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"A strange, somewhat removed experience...There are surely things to be enthusiastic about in Joe Mantello’s glitzy, solidly acted revival...Given that there’s something still alive, and still painful, at the heart of 'The Boys in the Band,' how does one explain the museum-piecey-ness that still overwhelms this production?...The whole thing feels like a carefully packaged luxury item, from the casting to the necessarily limited run."
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"There isn’t much to like about this emotionally evasive revival, which disserves Mr. Crowley’s beautifully, fearlessly wrought play in so many ways that I went home not merely disappointed but angry...The result is a staging that is too funny, one that gets its laughs at the expense of the raw, heartfelt anguish that is the whole point of the play. I have a feeling, though, that Mr. Mantello is at least as much to blame for this problem as are the actors themselves—maybe even more so."
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"A play that for all its imperfections throws a party at the Booth Theatre that shouldn’t be missed...Bernard, even as well performed as he is here, shows the play’s not inconsiderable seams...Those are imperfections that the best direction and most appealing performers can’t hide. They lock 'The Boys in the Band' just outside the major works of its era, even if they can’t keep us away from the party."
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"Crowley does the torching in his fanged, furious and frequently laugh-out-loud funny landmark 1968 dive into gay men’s lives. It’s messy stuff — and all too human...It still packs a wallop — even with slow patches and plot devices as old as the hills...Through it all, the ensemble filled with out-and-proud actors is uniformly terrific. They deftly hug the curves of the script as it goes from barbed humor to bile-spewing."
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"Festivities are certainly in order for this superbly mounted 50th anniversary production...If there’s one thing this staid theater season is more than ready for, it’s a motley crew of gay friends getting together to celebrate...Crowley is a master of the bitchy one-liner, so the play is littered with quotable bon mots...Happily, a lot about the play now seems dated — but not everything, and not in all circles of society, which makes this anniversary presentation doubly welcome."
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"What might have been another bulletin from the distant queer past is transformed into a scintillating portrait of the self-loathing that festers in ghettoized subcultures, perhaps as much now as then...The production is sharpest when the zingers are flying back and forth, but the anger coursing through the play's veins still scalds...There's unapologetic ownership and humanity in the incisive characterizations, which banishes any simplistic perception of the play as a voyeuristic pity party."
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