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The Party Is Starting. The Boys in the Band Comes to Waterbury.

Writer: Johan Castillo
Johan Castillo
5 days ago
2 min read

One birthday. Nine men. No exits. City Stage Company opens one of American theatre’s most daring plays Thanksgiving weekend.


It begins as a celebration. Drinks are poured, records are spinning, and the wit is sharp enough to cut. By the end of the night, no one in the room will be able to hide.

City Stage Company is proud to announce Mart Crowley’s The Boys in the Band, coming to Seven Angels Theatre this Thanksgiving weekend. It takes the place of Water for Elephants in our season, and ticket holders and pass holders will be honored for this production.


The play that opened the door

When The Boys in the Band premiered Off-Broadway in 1968, American theatre had never seen anything like it. A group of gay friends gather in a New York apartment for a birthday party. Over one evening, humor, old tensions, insecurities and long-held truths come to the surface, and the celebration becomes something far more charged.


It’s also, famously, funny. When the play returned to Broadway in 2018, Variety put it plainly:

“Crowley is a master of the bitchy one-liner, so the play is littered with quotable bon mots.”
(Standing, from left) Denzel Tsopnang, William Marquez, James Lee and Jackson Evans in The Boys in the Band
(Standing, from left) Denzel Tsopnang, William Marquez, James Lee and Jackson Evans in The Boys in the Band

By the numbers

  • 1,001 performances Off-Broadway

  • 1970: a feature film directed by Academy Award winner William Friedkin, with members of the original stage cast

  • 2018: a celebrated Broadway debut, with an entirely out-and-proud gay cast


Why now

More than fifty years later, the play still lands. Its questions about belonging, authenticity, vulnerability and the need to be accepted haven’t aged a day. In the right room, with the right company, they hit even closer. We are proud to bring a story that helped shape LGBTQ+ representation in American theatre to our stage.

Some conversations stay with us long after the curtain falls.


Know before you go

Directed by: Bobby Earl Henry, Actors’ Equity Association member

Where: Seven Angels Theatre, 1 Plank Road, Waterbury, CT

When:

  • Saturday, November 28 · 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM

  • Sunday, November 29 · 2:00 PM and 7:00 PM


Advisory: This production is intended for mature audiences and contains strong language, sexual references and mature themes.


Four performances. One weekend. Pull up a chair.


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