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DLCC Membership Team
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After
53 years, a new production of “The Boys in the Band – Os Garotos da Banda”
debuts in São Paulo.
Five decades later, the
show will be relaunched on October 31, at Teatro Procópio Ferreira, at a time
when Brazil seeks to exorcise the conservative wave, the attacks on culture and
the LGBTQIA+ population. Directed by Ricardo Grasson, the play stars Tiago
Barbosa, Bruno Narchi, Caio Evangelista, Caio Paduan, Heber Gutierrez, Heitor
Garcia, Júlio Oliveira, Leonardo Miggiorin, Mateus Ribeiro and Otávio Martins.
Considered the first
openly gay-themed play, The Boys in the Band – Os Garotos da Banda (1968), by
Matt Crowley, will be staged again in Brazil from October.
The first Brazilian version, which premiered
in São Paulo in 1970, at Teatro Cacilda Becker, was produced by Eva Wilma and
John Herbert – a heterosexual couple. Translated by Millor Fernandes, Os
Rapazes da Banda, had a cast with names such as Raul Cortez, Walmor Chagas,
Paulo César Pereio, Otávio Augusto, Gésio Amadeu, Dennis Carvalho and John
Herbert himself. Despite being a success, at the height of the military
dictatorship, the show suffered from conservative criticism and censorship for
addressing relationships between men in the midst of the sexual revolution in
the pre-AIDS era.
Fifty-three years
later, The Boys in the Band – Os Garotos da Banda finds a Brazil in the wake of
a conservative wave, seeking to rebuild its social and cultural foundations.
Produced by ZR Produções and directed by Ricardo Grasson, nominated for the
Bibi Ferreira Award in the Best Direction in Musicals category for O Bem Amado
Musicado, the cast includes Bruno Narchi, Caio Evangelista, Caio Paduan, Heber
Gutierrez, Heitor Garcia, Júlio Oliveira, Leonardo Miggiorin, Mateus Ribeiro,
Tiago Barbosa and Otávio Martins.
“The importance of
putting on the show today is to assimilate and understand what we have achieved
in the last fifty years. Achievements within the LGBTQIA+ movement, the black
movement, the feminist movement, geopolitics in the world. It’s about analyzing
where we’ve advanced and where we’ve remained stagnant. For this reason I
decided to set the show in the 1960s and not update it”, explains Grasson.
Relations homoafetivas in
the 1960s
The story takes place
in New York and revolves around a group of gay friends who get together to
celebrate one of their own birthdays. The play addresses issues of identity,
sexuality, relationships and self-acceptance. As the party progresses and the
alcohol rises, repressed conflicts and resentments between the characters come
to the surface during a venomous game that leads to personal revelations and
tense, intense emotional moments.
The play was notable
for its open representation of gay life at the time it was written, when
acceptance of homosexuality was limited and struggles for LGBTQIA+ rights were
still in their infancy. Conceived just one year before the Stonewall Uprising –
a representative moment for the gay community and its fight for basic rights –
it offers a frank and often cruel and painful look at the lives of these
characters and how they face questions of authenticity and acceptance in a
reactionary and violent society, which marginalizes everything that does not
meet established standards.
For Tony Kushner,
playwright responsible for Angels in America and nominated for an Oscar for
Best Adapted Screenplay for Munich (Dir: Steven Spielberg, 2005), The Boys in
the Band represents precisely the moment of rupture for the humanization of
homosexuals. In an introduction to the 2018 print edition, Kushner explains
that “there are moments when patterns break, behaviors change, and his
characters are able to articulate a commitment to change their stance.”
According to him, the piece captures what is disconcerting, strange and
embarrassing in these pre-explosion moments towards liberation.
A theater
play beyound your time
The Boys in the Band is considered an important work
in the history of LGBTQIA+ theater and has had a significant impact on the
representation and discussion of the gay community. The
American premiere, in 1968, shocked mainstream audiences by openly showing the
everyday lives of homosexuals and ran for 1,001 performances. The title of the
play is a reference to the 1954 film A Star Is Born, starring Judy Garland, an
icon for the gay community in the United States. In the film, James Mason says
that Judy's character “is singing to herself and the boys in the band”, a slang
term from that time to refer to gays.
For theater critic
Peter Filichia, the original production of the play helped inspire the
Stonewall protests in 1969 and sparked the gay rights movement. It couldn't be
any different: on the day of the Stonewall Uprising, The Boys in the Band was
playing in a theater close to the protest site. When fleeing police repression,
the protesters took shelter in the theater that showed the world the anxieties
and dilemmas of being a gay man in a context of conservative oppression.
Success on stage and
screen
The Boys in the Band
was adapted for film on two occasions, always with great success among
audiences and critics, and also had several theatrical productions over the
years around the world. The first version was adapted for film by Matt Crowley
himself and directed by William Friedkin, winner of the 1973 Oscar for the
classic The Exorcist.
In 2020, two years
after being revived on Broadway and winning a Tony Award in the category of
Best Play Revival, The Boys in the Band received a new filming directed by Joe
Mantello and produced by Ryan Murphy, responsible for hits like Glee, Pose and
American Horror Story. This new version is also considered historic for being
the first production with a 100% gay cast.
The film was one of Netflix's biggest hits
that year and shows that the story continues to be a relevant and influential
work in LGBTQIA+ culture.
DATASHEET
“The Boys in the Band”
Original text | Mart Crowley
Direction | Ricardo
Grasson
Brazilian version | Caio Evangelista
Production Management | Zuza Ribeiro
Driving assistance |
Heitor Garcia
Cast | Tiago Barbosa,
Bruno Narchi, Caio Evangelista, Caio Paduan, Heber Gutierrez, Júlio Oliveira,
Leonardo Miggiorin, Mateus Ribeiro and Otávio Martins.
Stand-ins | Heitor
Garcia, Gabriel Santana
Light design | Cesar
Pivetti
L.P. Sound Design |
Daniel
Scenography | Marco
Lima
Costume Design Marcos
Valadão
Visagismo | Louise
Helene
Executive Production |
Zuza Ribeiro, Claudia Odorissio, Jeana Kamil and Erica Cardoso
Executive production
assistant | David Calado
Production assistants | Luiz Ricci Guilherme
Zanela
Press | Alisson
Schafascheck, Danilo Saraiva, Giulianna Campos and Vicente Negrão Movement
Director Pedro Alonso
Prologue: Adalberto
Neto
Visual Identity | Henry Nottoli
Social Networks | Pedro Caldeira
Photos | Rafael Cusato
Idealization | @theboysintheband_br
PROCÓPIO FERREIRA
THEATER SERVICE
Rua Augusta, 2,823 –
Cerqueira César – São Paulo (11) 3083-4475 Tickets: R$ 120 to R$ 60 | Tuesdays
and Wednesdays at 9pm
Where to buy: –
https://bileto.sympla.com.br/event/87491
– Procópio Ferreira Box
Office: Tuesday and Wednesday from 2pm to 7pm; Thursday to Sunday from 2pm
until the start of the show;
House opens: 1 hour
before each show. 624 seats, including 7 seats adapted for obese people and a
further 12 seats reserved for wheelchair users.
– We accept all credit
cards – We do not accept payments by check – We do not take reservations – The
theater has air conditioning and universal access.
Producer Zuza Ribeiro
flanked by filmmaker Sabugo (on the left)
Producer Zuza Ribeiro
flanked by filmmaker Sabugo (on the left)
Photo: Personal Collection
Edition: Costa
Consulting CO Sula Costa MTB 0003600| GO
Folks, in Virginia, the stakes have never been higher. Governor Glenn Youngkin and extreme Republicans have made it clear that they’re trying to take our country back on issues like choice.
In my view, we should be doing a heck of a lot more in state legislatures. It really, really matters. Democrats are determined to protect our majority in the State Senate, and we need to take back the House of Delegates. I’m committed to joining the DLCC in leading the charge. Let’s finish the job, Joe Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
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