Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’s George and Martha blanch. The line is, of course, from Mart Crowley’s 1968 play The Boys in the Band, about a friend group of gay men who drink, smoke, snipe, and parry in a single evening.
They even get in some dancing and laughing as they air some dirty laundry as Harold arrives late to his party. The latest iteration of Crowley’s landmark work is the Netflix film produced by Ryan Murphy and helmed by legendary theater director Joe Mantello, who directed the 2018 Broadway production that famously starred a cast of only out queer men.
Since he wrote it, Crowley’s text has been examined and recontextualized in terms of its depiction of gay life, and not just by the actors who’ve stepped into the roles.