A big name cast brings Mart Crowley’s once revolutionary drama to West Yorkshire Playhouse’s smaller stage where LEO OWEN caught the show

PETULA Clark, framed pictures of female film icons, wooden furniture and exceedingly dated orange and lime décor transport us to Manhattan in the late 1960s. Party host, Michael (Ian Hallard) struts around his mezzanine in a bathrobe, preparing for Birthday celebrations to kick off. The arrival of an old college friend clueless about Michael’s sexuality, alongside copious alcoholic drinks, tests friendships while an enforced game of "Affairs of the Heart" prompts a series of heart-felt mini monologues.

Rebecca Brower's 60s’ design and James Nicholson’s soundtrack aren’t the only things that date Boys in The Band. Aside from dropping the C-bomb, Crowley’s drama fails to shock, merely acting as a social commentary for its time and depicting some startlingly negative gay stereotypes, embodied by feelings of shame and self-loathing. It once paved the way for gay characters to take centre stage and gave audiences a snapshot understanding of what it meant to be gay in its time.

Director Adam Penfold’s cast bring Crowley’s loud and fast-talking characters to life. Through unanimously strong performances from start to finish, they’re entirely absorbing and prop up slightly dated material, despite some of Crowley’s humour feeling shoehorned and a tad obvious. As lead Michael, Hallard plays the most complex and arguably rounded character, initially concerned for his guests and amusingly bitchy but affectionate in his dealings with Donald (Daniel Boys) only to unexpectedly become quite the vitriolic host, revealing some painful home truths.

There’s mystery and intrigue, courtesy of Birthday boy, Harold (Mark Gatiss) who’s repeatedly referenced in the first Act and is given an impeccably-timed entrance. Michael’s college chum Alan (John Hopkins) is at first not wholly convincing but warms to a difficult role, believably playing the drunk. Cowboy kissogram, Jack Derges, offers light relief, stupidly describing lasagne as "like spaghetti and meatballs kind of flattened out". A seriously camped up Emory (James Holmes), provides one of the most heart-breaking stories of admiration, alongside Bernard’s struggles against racial and sexual prejudice.

A night of sobering confessions that while no longer ground-breaking, certainly captivates and elicits the odd chuckle.

Boys in The Band shows in the Courtyard Theatre, November 14-19, before continuing its UK tour: http://britishtheatre.com/the-boys-in-the-band-uk-tour/