SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
Bay Area Reporter
March 17, 2020
By Brian Bromberger
Mart Crowley, whose landmark 1968 play “The Boys in the Band” became the first American stage production to deal openly and candidly with gay lives, over a year before the Stonewall Riots, died March 7 at age 84, from complications following heart surgery after suffering a heart attack. Without “Boys,” other breakthrough gay dramas such as “Torch Song Trilogy,” “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and “Angels in America” would have been inconceivable, as its popular success opened doors for honest depictions of LGBTQ people in mainstream theater and films. Its witty, acerbic banter (“Who do you have to fuck to get a drink around here?”) became part of gay vernacular. And its portrayal of gay men leading ordinary existences with similar issues such as the search for meaning and love, just like their straight counterparts, helped spur acceptance of queer folk in the prevailing cultural landscape. …
… Meanwhile, Crowley wrote several other dramas, including 1992’s “For Reasons That Remain Unclear,” about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church (he had been molested as a child) a decade before the scandal arose, and 2002’s “Men from the Boys,” a sequel to “Boys.” None were winners. Wood’s widowed husband, actor Robert Wagner, made him producer and executive script consultant on his hit 1980s TV series “Hart to Hart.” Crowley also stopped drinking.
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