Flashback Friday: The Boys in the Band Celebrates 50 Years of History

The Boys in the Band is just now making its Broadway debut in a Joe Mantello-directed production that opened Thursday night at the Booth Theatre. And yet, Mart Crowley's generation-defining play about a group of gay men celebrating a birthday in an Upper East Side apartment has been in the theatrical landscape for 50 years.

The first production opened off-Broadway at Theater Four in 1968 where it ran for over two years, closing on September 6, 1970. That year, Crowley adapted his play for the big screen, taking along his entire stage cast to reprise their roles for the film. It's not often a landmark piece of theater is so thoroughly immortalized — so take an abbreviated look back this Friday with the film's original trailer.