Total Rating: 
***
Opened: 
February 17, 2000
Ended: 
February 26, 2000
Country: 
USA
State: 
Kentucky
City: 
Louisville
Company/Producers: 
The Agenda
Theater Type: 
Regional
Theater: 
Artswatch
Theater Address: 
2337 Frankfort Avenue
Phone: 
(502) 515-7241
Running Time: 
2 hrs, 15 min
Genre: 
Drama
Author: 
Mart Crowley
Director: 
Don Cox
Review: 

1968 was the year both Hair and The Boys in the Band rocked and shocked theatergoers with their in-your-face depictions of a homosexual subculture and lifestyles that scorned Establishment values. By an odd coincidence, those two iconoclastic trail-blazing shows are being offered in Louisville at the same time in the year 2000: Hair at Actors Theater of Louisville and Boys by The Agenda at Artswatch. In a clever bit of cross-referencing, photos and posters from Hair adorn the walls of Mark Dawson Sullivan's enterprising Boys set, which makes the most effective use in memory of the storefront performance space. And Hair songs are among those played before the show begins.

Both Hair and Boys look a lot different in these different times. While the years have not been kind to either, the first act of Boys holds up surprisingly well, with the bitchy humor and ripostes of guests gathering at Michael's (Michael Horton) flat for a birthday party for his pot-smoking, pill-popping friend, Harold (Paul M.C. Thompson). But the second act now seems more than ever sunk in gloom and despair as host Michael gets drunk, misjudges the unhappiness of Alan, a supposedly straight college chum (Mark Dawson Sullivan) who drops in, and trades insults with the acid-tongued Harold, whose devastating retorts demolish him emotionally. A sadistic party game that Michael forces the group to play (why would they?) leaves most of them bereft of their already wobbly self-esteem. Gay liberation, such as it is, makes that kind of scenario less likely in these more enlightened times. But in its day Boys brought to light some abhorrent truths about isolation and destructive self-hatred in the gay ghetto.

The Agenda's young cast members, under Don Cox's fluid direction, throw themselves into the play's meaty roles with enthusiasm and varying degrees of skill. Thompson's Harold is particularly good, as is Gerald Robinson as the flamboyantly effeminate Emory. Chris Young as Cowboy, the hustler Emory rents as a birthday gift for Harold, brings an innocent endearing charm to his dumb remarks. One hilarious highlight is a line-dance, with exaggerated Supremes gestures, done by five of the men to Stop! in the Name of Love. There's also a shocking brawl, very well staged, that erupts when poor Emory's taunts provoke a violent reaction from Alan.

Cast: 
Michael Horton (Michael), Brian Walker (Donald), Gerald Robinson (Emory), Christopher Hartman (Larry), Jared Burton (Hank), Shawn Mayes (Bernard), Chris Young (Cowboy), Paul M. C. Thompson (Harold), Mark Dawson Sullivan (Alan).
Technical: 
Stage Manager: Cassandra Koehler; Set Design: Mark Dawson Sullivan
Critic: 
Charles Whaley
Date Reviewed: 
February 2000