November 8

Gay actors to headline
TBITB Broadway revival

“The Boys in the Band”, a gay-themed Off-broadway play, will be revived for a star-studded 50th-anniversary Broadway run next year – from April 30 to August 12 at the historic Booth Theatre (1913) on W. 45th St., NYC.

Zachary Quinto, Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer and Andrew Rannells will lead the ensemble, to be directed by Joe Mantello. Quinto, who will play Harold, the birthday boy, heads a cast that represents modern gay actor royalty. Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking 1968 play, about a gay male birthday party gathering, ran for 1,001 performances at Theater Four on West 55th Street, followed by an  acclaimed 1970 film version, not to mention a 1996 Off-Broadway revival.

To your blogger’s taste, this play is poison. It shines a spotlight on the worst qualities of gay men and the homosexual lifestyle. The characters are bitchy, cut-throat, mean-spirited caricatures. And the entire thing is relentlessly depressing. If you must see this play, watch the movie, and with the money you’ll save do something uplifting. Take your significant other out to a romantic meal with some boffo sex for dessert.

What I can recommend, however, is “Boys in the Sand”, the landmark 1971 porn film whose title is a parody on Crowley’s play. The impact of this film by Wakefield Poole cannot be overstated. It was the first gay porn film to have credits, to achieve crossover success, to be reviewed by Variety, and to gain mainstream credibility. 

It made a star out of Casey Donovan, the stage name of Cal Culver, a former Latin teacher. Filmed over three weekends on Fire Island on a budget of $8,000, “Boys in the Sand” took in $140,000 within its first six months of release. After opening at an art house cinema, the 55th Street Playhouse in NYC, it spread its wings nationwide and eventually achieved international acclaim. For many straight people, this was the first gay porn film they had ever seen.

The film is an explicit yet imaginative gay porn movie, replete with oral and anal sex, dildo play, poppers and bi-racial sex. No dialogue, but each of the three vignettes tells a story. Basically, it’s a porn flick with attractive people acting out uninhibited gay sex fantasies. Poole had said he wanted to make a film that gay people could look at and say, “I don’t mind being gay. It’s beautiful to see those people do what they are doing.”

Required viewing for every adult gay man.

Just because: