The Boys in the Band is the title of a play by Mart Crowley which for the first time truly and honestly dealt with the lives of contemporary homosexuals. It was successfully performed on Broadway in 1968. Homosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love, or sexual desire exclusively for another of the same sex. ... This article is about the street in New York City. ...

The play is considered to be a groundbreaking work in American theater. It opened in New York on April 14, 1968, at the off-Broadway Theater Four and ran for 1002 performances. In 1970 it was adapted to a successful motion picture directed by William Friedkin. State nickname: Empire State Other U.S. States Capital Albany Largest city New York Governor George Pataki Official languages None (English is de facto) Area 141,205 km² (27th)  - Land 122,409 km²  - Water 18,795 km² (13. ... The Boys in the Band is a 1970 film directed by William Friedkin. ... William Friedkin (born August 29, 1935 in Chicago, Illinois) is a movie and television director, producer, and writer best known for directing The Exorcist and The French Connection in the early 1970s. ...

At a time when true gay characters were seldom seen in theater performances and on TV Crowley's play presented a well-rounded view of the homosexual milieu. For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation) Theater (American English) or Theatre (British English and widespread usage among theatre professionals in the US) is that branch of the performing arts concerned with acting out stories in front of an audience using combinations of speech, gesture, music, dance, sound and spectacle — indeed... See TV (disambiguation) for other uses and Television (band) for the rock band European networks National In much of Europe television broadcasting has historically been state dominated, rather than commercially organised, although commercial stations have grown in number recently. ...

The scene is laid in Michael's apartment in New York's noble Upper East Side. There nine of Harold's closest friends throw him a birthday party. One of Harold's presents is "Cowboy", a male prostitute, since Harold may have trouble finding a cute young man on his own now that he is turning thirty and morose about losing his youthful looks. The other characters are Michael (a lapsed Roman Catholic alcoholic undergoing psychoanalysis); Donald (a conflicted friend who has moved far from the city to spurn the homosexual lifestyle); Bernard (an Afro-American who still pines for the wealthy white boy of the house where his mother worked as a maid); Emory (revelling in his homosexuality by acting flamboyant and girlish); Larry and Hank (a couple living together but disagreeing on the issue of monogamy); and Alan (Michael's allegedly straight old college friend). During the party the self-deprecating humor of the group takes a nasty turn as the nine men become drunker. The whole scene culminates in a cruel telephone game where each man must call someone and tell him of his love for them.

Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band is bitter, bitchy, and scathing such as Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962). At the time of its first performance, it was able to slap the audience into a new angle on human life and human love. The drama is significant because it marks a mainstream turning point in sexual otherness and consciousness. Without the help of actress Natalie Wood, who had a sympathy for Hollywood gays, the play would never have been written and successfully performed. According to Wood biographer Gavin Lambert and gay historian David Ehrenstein, Natalie Wood did her part for gay history by supporting Crowley in a manner that made it possible for him to write his play. The author, himself a homosexual, worked for Wood and her husband Robert Wagner for many years. He first met Wood while working as a production assistant on the movie Splendor in the Grass. From this time on he became a longtime assistant and friend to her and Wagner. Wood also hired Crowley's boyfriend. Edward Franklin Albee III (born March 12, 1928) is a leading American playwright known for intelligent, well-crafted and often unsympathetic examinations of the modern condition. ... Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is a play by Edward Albee that opened on Broadway at the Billy Rose Theater on October 13, 1962. ... Natalie Wood Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981), better known as Natalie Wood, was an American film actress. ... Robert Wagner (born 10 February 1930) is an American actor. ...