Was the play "Boys in the Band" Playing the night of Stonwall Riot?

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Request for Question Clarification by markj-ga on 16 Feb 2004 14:38 PST

dundas --

I have not been able to find a specific reference to the fact that
"The Boys in the Band" was being performed on the night of the
Stonewall Inn raid.  However, I can establish conclusively for you
that the play was in the middle of its successful New York run at the
time.  Since the raid occurred on a Friday night (actually in the wee
hours of Saturday morning), it is virtually certain that a performance
of the play took place on both that Friday and Saturday night.

If this, plus supporting information, would be a completely
satisfactory response to your question, I would be happy to post it as
an answer,along with my search strategy.

markj-ga

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Clarification of Question by dundas-ga on 16 Feb 2004 16:54 PST

Markj-ga

satisfied with answer. thank you. dundas

dundas --

Thanks very much for your clarification.  You have asked a very
specific question, so I will give you a very specific answer.

Matt Crowley's play "Boys in the Band" ran Off-Broadway at Theatre
Four for 1000 performances from April 15, 1968 to September 6, 1970. 
My primary citation for that information is the Internet Off-Broadway
Database.  Here is the page from that database that contains this
information:
Lortel Archives: The Boys in the Band
http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&title=The%20Boys%20in%20the%20Band

The following link from the same site contains more information about
that production:
Lortel Archives: The Boys in the Band: Details
http://www.lortel.org/LLA_archive/index.cfm?search_by=show&id=3484

Although the date of the Stonewall Inn raid is often reported as
Friday, June 27, 1969, the raid actually occurred in the wee hours of
Saturday, June 28.  Here is a link to a Web page created after the
June 1999 announcement that the Stonewall Inn would be placed on the
National Register of Historic Places:
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation: Stonewall Gains
Federal Recognition on its 30th Anniversary
http://www.gvshp.org/stonewall.htm 

Since the Stonewall Inn raid occurred almost exactly on a weekend in
the middle of the very successful Off-Broadway run of "The Boys in the
Band,"  it is a virtual certainty that the play was performed at
Theatre Four on both Friday, June 27 and Saturday, June 28, 1969.


Additional Site:

Here is a link to a nearly contemporaneous and colorful account of the
Stonewall Inn raid as reported in the July 6 edition of the New York
Daily News and posted with GLB News:
GLB News
http://www.yak.net/ian/stonewall.html


Search Strategy:

I am personally familiar with the time and place of the Stonewall Inn
raid because I lived only a few blocks away at the time, having moved
to New York, after a sheltered youth in the Midwest, only a few months
before.

I first placed the Stonewall Inn raid on a specific date using a
couple of increasingly focused Google searches, including:

"stonewall inn" raid
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22stonewall+inn%22+raid

"stonewall inn" "june * 1969" 
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22stonewall+inn%22+raid
(The asterisk denotes a "wild card" word or character.  This allowed
me to confirm the actual date as being the early morning of Saturday,
June 28th, despite the common reports of the raid as occurring simply
on "Friday night.")

I then determined when and where the play "The Boys in the Band" was
performed in New York by searched at the Internet Off-Broadway
Database, with which I was already familiar.  I also conducted some
Google searches to confirm all of the above information, including:

"stonewall inn" "boys in the band"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=%22stonewall+inn%22++%22boys+in+the+band%22

"theater OR theatre four OR 4" "boys in the band"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22theater+OR+theatre+four+OR+4%22+%22boys+in+the+band%22


Because of your helpful clarification, I am confident that this is the
information you are seeking.  If anything is unclear, please ask for
further clarification before rating this answer.


markj-ga

very informed and detailed answer, felt guilty for using professional
researcher to settle a bet.

dundas -- 

Thanks much for the rating and the generous tip.  I assume that you won the bet :)

markj-ga