PREVIEW: THE BOYS IN THE BAND

Direct from a sell out run in London, Mart Crowley’s ground-breaking play, THE BOYS IN THE BAND, visits the Theatre Royal, Brighton next month as part of a short UK tour.

There’s a party about to commence when nine men gather in a New York apartment for a birthday celebration. Harold, a self-confessed ‘Jew fairy’, receives a surprise birthday gift – a beautiful male hustler dubbed Cowboy. Meanwhile, party host Michael gets an unwanted surprise of his own in the shape of a figure from his past. As the booze is drunk and the dope smoked, the mood swings from hilarity to heart-break.

Olivier Award winner Mark Gatiss stars alongside his husband Ian Hallard in this eagerly anticipated production, which sees the pair playing Harold and Michael.

The production is directed by A Small Family Business & One Man Two Guvnors’ director, Adam Penford.

Mark Gatiss and Ian Hallard, said: “We are thrilled to be a part of this production, which will bring this seminal gay play back to London for the first time in eighteen years. The script is razor-sharp, with huge amounts of wit and pathos, and is as fresh, startling and relevant as it was back in 1968. It’s tremendously exciting to be working with a superb creative and production team who are bringing the show to Park Theatre. And we can’t wait to work together on stage for the first time.”

From the producers of the critically acclaimed revivals of Beautiful Thing, Our Boys and Another Country, and the forthcoming stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain, comes this eagerly anticipated revival of Mart Crowley’s seminal piece, which premiered in 1968 just before the Stonewall riots.

This witty, dark American play which changed the landscape of gay theatre was adapted into a film in 1970, becoming a cult hit. The play was last revived in New York in 2010, and this UK revival will mark almost 20 years since the last West End production.