Partial cast of Uptown Players’ ‘The Boys in the Band.’ (Courtesy photo)
Uptown Players closes its season on Sunday with the classic gay play, Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band. This dramatic tale is an interesting juxtaposition from Uptown’s previous show The Prom earlier this summer. In some ways, they bookend each other. The Prom is a modern tale of queer joy focused on a lesbian character. Boys is a hard-hitting period piece that gives attention, and almost gives birth to the notion that gay men exist in the real world and experience happiness, love and trauma.
We’ve come a long way.
It’s hard to say if queer theater today would exist without Boys, but it did create a template that we can see echoed in Love! Valour! Compassion!, Jeffrey and The View UpStairs. Crowley’s mix of cocktails and a bunch of gay men is a potent one and something is going to hit the fan.
In Uptown’s production, Dennis Canright directed the play (a 2018 revised version) with a magic touch. He navigated nine characters in, out and throughout Kevin Brown’s magnificent two-story set with a deft hand. As each actor landed their mark, almost a picture-perfect scene came to life with characters placed and blocked with astonishing balance.
Canright also helmed the drama with a knack for finding the comedy within the heavy-hitting dialogue. He created a perpetual tension amid funny wisecracks and over-the-top sass. We knew something was coming, but Canright’s insight into the nuances of gay men together lulled us into a sense of comfort before the storm.
The cast was a mix of fresh faces and familiar ones. While certainly an ensemble effort, the story centered much on Michael where a birthday party for Harold takes place. Clayton Younkin gave a remarkable layered performance that ran the entire gamut of emotions from fun and flirty to a shattered mess. Hey — gay besties can do that. As his most sympathetic friend Donald, Caddo Lindsey’s portrayal was strong and earnest in his Uptown debut. Lindsey straddled that line of Donald being true to his moral compass while also being a comfort to both Michael and others.
Quinton Jones Jr. played a tender Bernard who had his big moment in the second half and Jones let us have it. When Bernard is forced into an uncomfortable situation, the way Jones just opened the floodgates of frustration and pain was riveting. As the effete Emory, Ethan Rodriguez Mullins, also debuting at Uptown, brought a beautifully proud character to life in the show. Mullins nailed the sass and pomp of his colorful Emory, but drove home the character’s inner pain and struggle.
As a couple on the rocks, Larry and Hank were played by Nick Marchetti and Ian Mead Moore. While these two character opposites may have attracted, it was hard to fully buy into their togetherness. The chemistry was fine, but we never learned enough about the backgrounds of these two that would have their relationship make sense.
Larry was the more free-spirited of the two yet wanted a conventional relationship and Marchetti, with his long locks and unbuttoned shirt well-played both his sexy flair and his pure desire for Hank — yet, his antagonizing flirting with Donald toward Hank earned some side eyes in his first role with Uptown. Like, gurrrrl, you betta quit. As the understated bisexual Hank, Moore gave a subtly stoic performance that balanced out the louder characters. Hank was the sensible rock of the group and Moore brought that gravitas to his performance.
In dashing black tie attire, Seth Paden played Michael’s conservative straight friend Alan (Question mark on the straight). Paden proved his star quality in Theatre Arlington’s Cabaret earlier this year as the Emcee and he’s prone to showier musical roles. Here, he did a 180 and gave a character who was tempered and conflicted. In a violent moment, Paden turned up the volume on Alan’s bad-tempered homophobia. When Alan shifts his perspectives, Paden gave him a genuine remorse that was easily forgivable.
Ryan Maffei’s performance as Harold was splendid. He came in with a bang as the first act closed. But in the second act, Harold mostly held court on one side of the stage. Not to minimize Harold’s presence, but Maffei almost planted himself and let the action orbit around him yet remained magnetic the entire time. Quite an Uptown debut for the actor. As his “birthday present” from Emory, Noah Randall played the rent-a-cowboy who gets caught up in all the drama. Randall tapped into the levity his character provided while shirtless in a denim vest the whole time.
Back to Brown’s set, the two story apartment was a stunning first impression. A fully realized living room, an upstairs bedroom, bathroom and hallway and a spiral staircase connecting the floors. The details in the furnishings and decor conveyed a specific gay man’s home in the late ’60s with framed movie posters and exquisite and appropriate color elements. Suzi Cranford outfitted each with looks that tied to each character’s personality matching Michael B. Moore’s hair and makeup. The fashions and grooming felt both trendy for the time and timeless. Kyle Harris’ lighting gave the apartment a lovely warmth. This team along with Kennedy Smith on props and Brian Christensen on sound created an ideal portrait of the time.
The significance of seeing this show now isn’t just to show where “we come from” nor how much we’ve changed. What Crowley’s story does now is show us how much we have stayed the same. The chosen family. The love/hate relationships. The tight bonds. Not all of it was pretty, but The Boys in the Band showed how queer survival skills still work today to find a safe place called home that then creates and perpetuates our queer culture.
The show closes Sunday.
–Rich Lopez