Baton of “Boys in the Band” Set Down
A fond farewell to playwright Mart Crowley, 1935-2020
BY DAVID NOH
Dear Mart Crowley,
When I went to your
amazing, ultra-chic aerie
on Sutton Place, which
was like the most exquisite stage
set Ina Claire might have entered
and somehow made you feel like
being in Paris, we sat before the fi re
with cocktails and you gave me the
longest interview on record. What
was it — four solid hours, maybe
more? Which fl ew by like nothing.
I started by asking you about
your famous actress friend and
surprised you when it wasn’t Natalie
Wood, but Diana Lynn I wanted
to know about, who always fascinated
me much more, a trained
classical pianist who somehow
went Hollywood and gave two of
the most enchanting performances
on fi lm for two great directors, Billy
Wilder (“The Major and the Minor”)
and Preston Sturges (“The Miracle
of Morgan’s Creek”).
And then, yes, it was on to Natalie,
with you recalling the day you
heard that dreadful news, to Bette
for whom you wrote that pilot with
her as an interior decorator, and, of
course, “The Boys in the Band.”
I told you how much seeing that
as a kid in Hawaii meant to me,
as it normalized — even with all
the neurosis, a bugaboo to the politically
correct with no clue as to
the reality of the past, or present I
might add — two things I wanted
more than anything else in my life
then: to be healthily gay and to live
in New York. I bought the paperback
of the script and just about
memorized it. Like every little gay
boy in the world, I lusted for Frederick
Combs and thrilled to the
“Heat Wave” line dance. (Could
there have been a better song
choice?) And the fact that the characters
were so old-movie-obsessed
like me?
Fuggedaboudit! (Now most
young gays seem to only be into
Gaga, “Drag Race,” Grindr and the
gym.) And how I ached to see more
of that tantalizing tome Leonard
Frey, so brilliant as Harold, kept
idly leafi ng through as he spat the
Mart Crowley last June accepting the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for “Boys in the Band.”
best vitriol ever.
I knew, of course that I would
learn a lot about your most famous
play, but this surprised me: Mart,
when I told you I was Korean you
asked me to clear something up
for you. You said that when “Boys”
had a recent production in Tokyo,
the African-American character of
Bernard was made to be Korean,
instead, and you wondered why. It
was then that I gave you a quick
history of the centuries-old enmity
between the two countries and
how the Japanese have traditionally
regarded Koreans as the nwords
of Asia.
I also told you how uncanny it
was that, on my very fi rst day I
moved here, I went to Central Park
to probe the enticement that was
then The Rambles and, emerging
out of the tall grass, who do I spot
but a sweaty Keith Prentice, who
played promiscuous Larry in the
play and fi lm, shirt open to the
waist, fl ashing hairy chest and
major bulge in white bellbottoms.
Talk about life imitating…!
What an extraordinary experience
meeting you was, and you
sent me a letter I shall always cherish.
We had a lovely reunion when I
ran into you and your great friend,
John “Lypsinka” Epperson, at that
play “I’m Looking for Helen Twelvetrees”
— another delightful time
was had, with diva names endlessly
dropped – and how happy I was
for you about the sensational renaissance
of “Boys” on Broadway.
You never wrote another play to
REUTERS/ BRENDAN MCDERMID
match it — as I believe every word
of it was based on the truth, what
you knew from life. But that’s okay
because “The Boys in the Band” is
immortal and will continue to entrance
and give hope to little gay
boys for generations to come. All
you needed to do was write this
REMEMBRANCE
one, momentously immortal work,
like Harper Lee and her undying
“To Kill a Mockingbird.”
By the way, in the year it opened,
1968, these were the Tony nominees
for Best Play:
“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Are Dead” — Tom Stoppard (winner)
“A Day in the Death of Joe Egg”
– Peter Nichols
“Plaza Suite” — Neil Simon
“The Price” — Arthur Miller
When’s the last time any of those
were revived on Broadway? … well,
okay, “Plaza” is scheduled this season.
But the Broadway “Boys” was
its third major revival since 1996,
and are they remaking “Plaza
Suite” as a movie, as well?
Nope!
And they never ever will.
So RIP, you darling, wonderfully
inspiring, and essential groundbreaker
of a guy.
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