Ryan Murphy’s Netflix Remake of ‘The Boys in the Band’ Mixes The Star Power of Today With The Charm of 50 Years Ago In a New Sneak Peek
There are few creatives in Hollywood who work as hard as Ryan Murphy. The trailblazing director, producer, and writer is always dedicating his time to a different project, each with its own unique significance. He’s also no stranger to bringing successful Broadway productions to the big screen: he directed and produced a film adaptation of The Normal Heart in 2014, and he’s currently working on a movie version of Tony-nominated smash The Prom for Netflix.
Murphy has another project in the pipeline with a much sooner release date: a new movie adaptation of The Boys in the Band.
What movies has Ryan Murphy directed before?
Though Ryan Murphy is most known for his TV productions like American Horror Story, Glee, and Pose, he’s by no means a rookie movie director. He directed and co-wrote the movie adaptation of Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts as well as the Annette Bening-led version of Running with Scissors in 2006.
While Murphy spent most of the 2010s focusing on TV rather than movies, he’s kicking off this decade with a slew of new movies with his stamp on it. First was last year’s Netflix documentary Circus of Books, which he produced. Earlier this spring, Netflix released A Secret Love, another Ryan Murphy-produced documentary about the lives of LGBTQ people.
Now, he’s gearing up for the release of both The Boys in the Band and The Prom later this year.
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What is ‘The Boys in the Band’?
The Boys in the Band is a play that debuted Off-Broadway in 1968, and became a beloved show for its honest portrayal of gay life in New York City; specifically, gay life in the years before Pride was born at the Stonewall riots. It was made into a movie in 1970, which has since become a cult classic. The play was revived on Broadway in 2018 for the first time since its original run, and it went on to win the Tony for Best Revival of a Play the following year.
It tells the story of a birthday party in New York’s Upper East Side, where a group of gay men have come together to celebrate. Because it took place before the gay liberation movement began, the characters are much more self-deprecating about their identity, and don’t contain many elements of confidence that most out and proud LGBTQ folks have today.
Who’s starring in ‘The Boys in the Band’?
In the decades following the premiere The Boys in the Band, many of the actors who starred in the original production fell victim to the AIDS epidemic. The revival in 2018 was a star-studded affair, with Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto, and Andrew Rannells leading the show. Every cast member in the revival will reprise their roles for Ryan Murphy’s film version, and in a first look at the film released by Netflix, the actors look as natural in their roles as they did on stage.
The movie will also feature some other familiar faces who starred in the Broadway revival. Charlie Carver, who rose to fame with shows like Desperate Housewives and Teen Wolf, will play the Cowboy character. Robin de Jesús is an accomplished stage actor in New York, having earned Tony nominations for his roles in In the Heights and La Cage aux Folles. Another Desperate Housewives actor, Tuc Watkins, will jump back into his role from the Broadway production, as well as prolific stage and film actor Brian Hutchinson.
Make sure you don’t miss The Boys in the Band on Netflix September 30th.
