The Boys in the Band starts airing on Netflix today, reuniting the cast of the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival on screen. The film stars nine out actors Andrew Rannells, Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Tuc Watkins, Michael Benjamin Washington, Robin de Jesus, Brian Hutchinson, and Charlie Carver as a group of gay friends in 1968 who (very simply put) attend a birthday party where sparks fly. Rannells tells us what it was like to work with the cast again and why this story still resonates today.
How hard was it to get the cast together logistically?
I don’t recall it being a challenge. Jim [Parsons] had finished filming The Big Bang. I had to overlap a little bit with [the series] Black Monday. There was a tiny bit of trickiness. The amazing thing about Ryan Murphy is he told us while we were doing the play that he wanted us to turn it into a film the next summer. Everyone kind of had it in their heads that it was going to be the on their schedule. We all made those adjustments and everyone was happy to do so.
What was it about this cast that clicked?
I had known a lot of those guys. Zach [Quinto], Matt [Bomer], Michael Washington and I have known each other for many, many years. I’ve known Jim for a long time and we got to know each other better. Tuc [Watkins] and I didn’t know each other. Robin de Jesús and I had been in the same Broadway circle since we were very young. But we had never all gotten to work together like that. Maybe a couple of us at a time, but to have nine gay men that all got to do this show together was such a gift in every way. It was something that none of us had ever experienced. I don’t know why there’s not more like that. [Director] Joe Mantello and [executive producer] Ryan Murphy wanted that cast and made it happen. It was amazing to look around the room and not only see our personal history together, but know that a lot of those guys in the original off-Broadway and film cast didn’t have the access or luxury that we all have 50 years later; being able to be out and still working. We were regularly moved by that fact. You can look around the room and know that here we are all together and nobody felt that they needed to lie or compromise because of what was happening in the world around us. That also felt very special.
THE BOYS IN THE BAND (2020)
Andrew Rannells as Larry and Tuc Watkins as Hank.
Cr. Scott Everett White/NETFLIX ©2020
Let’s talk about your character Larry. What interested you in taking him on?
The conversation that Hank [Tuc Watkins] and Larry have at the end of the movie about monogamy and relationships and what they should look like: I found that to be a conversation I’ve had in the past—on both sides of it. Something that [playwright] Mart Crowley wrote about 50 years ago still felt incredibly relevant to this day. I was really fascinated by the language he uses and emotionally where these guys are. I was drawn to Larry because at his core, he really does love Hank and does want to make this work. He’s just not sure if he has it in him to do it and if that’s the goal. As gay men, should we be trying to follow that template of a more hetero relationship? The character Hank is coming out of a marriage with kids. Larry has just been living his life so it’s a real adjustment to him. I was really drawn with how contemporary it all felt.
What were the major differences between doing this on stage and on camera?
The design of it was the biggest difference. We had this beautiful set on Broadway, but it was very stylized. The wardrobe was also more stylized and wasn’t so rooted in 1968. Doing the film, we had this incredible set that was just packed with information about Jim’s character. The details on that set! It was exciting to be on something that felt like a real home of a gay man in 1968. Our wardrobe and our hair was also thrown back to that year to root it to the time period. It was really helpful. The nuance of doing it on film, versus a Broadway audience, was being able to craft these small and intimate moments that worked really well for the camera. Some of our upstaging was maybe not caught on camera, which was perhaps not the worst thing. I tend to ham it up quite a bit!
The Boys In The Band (Scott Everett )
You had one of the best costumes.
I love it, too! Thank you for noticing that. When we were doing the Broadway show we weren’t really dealing with the period as much. For this, we were able to go deep into all different archives in Hollywood. Lou Eyrich is this incredible costume designer who works all the time with Ryan. They have a really great shorthand about what he’s looking for. She had rooms full of clothes and said, “What does Larry want to wear? What do you think he would wear?” We landed on that jacket almost immediately. The pants were vintage, but the reality of wearing the same costume for almost eight weeks, every day, you can’t wear vintage clothes like that. That doesn’t work.
Why do you think this story still resonates 50 years later and how do you think it will be watched by people? It feels like the kind of film that friends should watch together.
I hope that happens and people have viewing parties and watch with their friends. My friend group in New York are gay men, straight men, straight women, and gay women. It’s a bit more eclectic group than the film, but the dynamics in our group, I found not quite as withering as the movie. But sometimes you are mean to your friends and you can say really shitty things without thinking before they come out. I’ve been friends with most of friends for 20 years so they’re my chosen family. Sometimes we can be a little rough with each other when it comes to giving advice or feedback. I think that’s what’s so great about what Mart put together with these nine guys. That’s always going to be a very timely quality of friend groups. I hope people—and younger audiences—watch it as not just entertainment, but also about the history. This being one of the first all-gay plays that Mart wrote in 1968, a year before Stonewall. There’s a lot of history to it, but it still feels very contemporary. This play gets a lot of flack sometimes for being cynical and dark. I hope we found the heart in it that makes that cynicism possible. Jim’s performance is particularly beautiful. Zach’s last line is “I’ll call you tomorrow.” It doesn’t matter what they just went through that night. They’re going to talk tomorrow. Everything’s okay. I think that’s really beautiful.
Tell me about Mart Crowley, who wrote the show and died this past March. Was he on set with you? Did you get to know him?
We knew him really well. He started coming around during rehearsals for the Broadway show. He was around a lot and made himself very accessible in answering questions and sharing information with us. A lot of these characters are composites of people he knew. He was really open with sharing that information with us. When we got into the Broadway run, he became a huge part of the cast and was around a lot. We’d go to Sardi’s on Thursday nights. He would join us and tell us stories. He would tell us stories about working [on the TV show] Hart to Hart in the 1980s. He was friends with Natalie Wood. He felt like he was part of the cast. He has a tiny cameo in the movie. When I’m at Julius’ Bar and flirting with the boy that Larry picks up from the street, Mart is right behind me at the bar. It’s very brief, but he’s in the movie. He was so sweet that day. He came in with all these ideas about his character. It was my birthday that day and his birthday the day before and they all sang to us on the set. He was such a kind and generous man.
THE BOYS IN THE BAND CAST
(Scott Everett White )
The movie gives you the feeling of going to a Broadway show. How are you feeling about the state of theatre right now? Any thoughts on what will happen?
I’m obviously very nervous about it. I don’t know what the end is or what would make it possible for us to go back. Is it the vaccine? A redesign of some of those theaters? I don’t know how that’s going to happen. What I do know is people are working very hard in that community to make sure that does happen. My friends who work on Broadway and I talk about it a lot. We all share information as we’re learning things. Broadway is such a huge part of New York City and personally such a huge part of my life. It does feel like something is missing in New York… because there is. I don’t know what it will take, but I’m optimistic in the not so distant future that we can get back up and running.
What else do you have coming out this year?
I just finished Prom with Ryan Murphy, which is another Broadway show; a musical. We finished filming that right as everything fell apart. That will come out later this year. It’s with Meryl Streep, James Corden, and Nicole Kidman. I’m very excited about that. I’m also making my directorial debut for Modern Love with a script that I wrote. It’s a fun shift to be on this side of things.
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