Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto, Jim Parsons, Andrew Rannells & More to Lead The Boys in the Band on Broadway

A star-packed 50th-anniversary production of Mart Crowley’s groundbreaking comic drama The Boys in the Band will appear on Broadway in 2018. Emmy nominees Matt Bomer and Zachary Quinto, Emmy winner Jim Parsons and two-time Tony nominees Andrew Rannells and Robin De Jesús will lead the play's first Broadway production, set to play a limited 15-week engagement at the Booth Theatre from April 30 through August 12, with an official opening date to be announced. Two-time Tony winner Joe Mantello will direct the mounting produced by Ryan Murphy and David Stone.

The Boys in the Band centers on a group of gay men who gather in an NYC apartment for a friend’s birthday party. After the drinks are poured and the music is turned up, the evening slowly exposes the fault lines beneath their friendships and the self-inflicted heartache that threatens their solidarity. A theatrical game-changer when it first opened in 1968, The Boys in the Band helped spark a revolution by putting gay men's lives onstage—unapologetically and without judgment—in a world that was not yet willing to fully accept them.

"The significance of The Boys in the Band cannot be underestimated. In 1968, Mart Crowley made theatrical history by giving voice to gay men onstage, in this uncompromising, blisteringly honest and wickedly funny play," said Murphy. "The play was groundbreaking in its exploration of how gay men treated each other and how they were made to feel about themselves. And while some attitudes have thankfully shifted, it's important to be reminded of what we have overcome and how much further we still have to go." Stone added, "Everything has changed. And nothing has changed."

Bomer (White Collar) will make his Broadway debut in the role of Donald, with Great White Way veterans Quinto (The Glass Menagerie) as Harold, Parsons (An Act of God) as Michael, Rannells (Falsettos) as Larry and De Jesús (In the Heights) as Emory. They will be joined by Brian Hutchison (Man and Boy) as Alan, Michael Benjamin Washington (La Cage aux Folles) as Bernard and Tuc Watkins (White's Lies) as Hank.

Additional casting and design team for the Broadway production of The Boys in the Band will be announced in the coming weeks.