The Boys in the Band

Windy City Playhouse is thrilled to present Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking play The Boys in the Band, directed by Playhouse associate artistic director Carl Menninger. The Playhouse invites audience members to sit inches from the characters who helped spark a revolution by putting gay men’s lives onstage during the pre-Pride era. Fresh off its Tony Award-winning Broadway revival, this landmark play comes to Chicago for the first time in 20 years at Windy City Playhouse Flagship. Set in 1968, the play takes place at the birthday party of Harold, who is turning 32. Luckily, friend-enemy Michael is there with six mutual friends to help him ease into the big three-two. The party is all jokes and quips until the host proposes a harmless game of truth or dare. Suddenly, each must reckon with his sexual identity — out, closeted, flamboyant, or “passing” — in an oppressive world where self-love is a luxury.