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3 Plays: The Boys in the Band, a Breeze from the Gulf, for Reasons That Remain Unclear

Published in Paperback by Alyson Pubns (1996)

Authors: Mart Crowley and Gavin Lambert

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Boys in the band is hilarious

I found this play to be one of the funniest I have ever read. Black humour at its most hilarious.

Great Plays

I wonder sometimes why so few people know who Mart Crowley is. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me to call him one of the most gifted and important American playwrights, and yet nobody I've talked to, outside a handful of gay men who are in the theater or who read too much, has known even his name.

The Boys in the Band is the best-known of Mr. Crowley's plays: that's because, well, it IS the best, and also because there was an excellent movie made of it, which is as often seen as the play is read or seen on stage. The play is a brutal birthday party one evening in New York in 1969, and the guest of honor is guilt itself: eight gay men in their 30s gather and say horrible things to each other, which reflect more on themselves than on each other. Each in his own way is caught in the war zone between his homosexuality and the pressure from society to be something else (and goodness knows, the play opened just a few months before Stonewall). The most incredible thing about the play (in my opinion) is Mr. Crowley's evenness: you get the feeling that he is just showing life as he knew it, and not trying to judge or blame anyone or anything--rather a big feat for all the hate that had poisoned that life-as-he-knew-it.

One criticism has been consistently directed at The Boys in the Band over the years, that it depicts only guilt-ridden self-hating gay men who wish for all the world that they weren't gay. All I can say to this is, well, yes; but I am only 19 and I know exactly why these particular men are so guilt-ridden and self-hating, not because I grew up before Stonewall (I was still in diapers at the beginning of AIDS), but because it's STILL tough to be gay in America. This kind of guilt and this kind of self-hate haven't disappeared--I experienced them first-hand in the 1990s. If The Boys in the Band seems a bit narrow for focusing only on that, then it's remarkably deep in spite of its narrowness.

The other two plays in this collection are also quite good. They too are built on Mr. Crowley's cl! arity and evenness of vision, but it seems (unfortunately) that they'll always suffer in comparison to the first play. They're good reads. I recommend them highly.

I can't justify my claim to you that Mr. Crowley is one of the great American playwrights--how can just one person justify that? The claim, I hope, will justify itself as future theater-goers, movie-goers, and readers (you!!) match Mr. Crowley's clarity and get to know his plays. For all the depressing subject matter, the plays are gripping, quite funny, searingly intelligent, and very rewarding. He sees a lot.

Eloise Takes A Bawth

Published in School & Library Binding by Simon & Schuster (Juv) (22 October, 2002)

Authors: Hilary Knight, Kay Thompson, and Mart Crowley

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The final Eloise story completely misses the boat.

Americans have the mistaken belief that stories _about_ children are necessarily _for_ children. This was good for Kaye Thompson, though, because the "Eloise" books were most-often bought by adults for children.

But they're hardly kiddy-lit. A sophisticated child might appreciate Eloise (I did), but for the average child, Eloise is little more than a bad role model.

She's spoiled, self-absorbed, bratty -- and gets away with it, because she knows what most children don't realize until they've become parents: the most-important thing you can do as a child is to disrupt the adult world. It doesn't matter that you're punished for it, if you've inflicted pain and confusion on grown-ups.

Eloise is _not_ the child hiding in every adult, but rather the child many adults wish they had been - doing whatever they like, then secretly snickering, because they know their parents aren't going to enact any _meaningful_ retribution. Unlike most children, Eloise isn't sufficiently intimidated by adults to be worried about the consequences of her acts.

I've been an Eloise fan "forever," so I eagerly anticipated "Eloise Takes a Bawth." Alas, it doesn't come close to the "originals." Once you know the hotel is throwing a grand Venetian ball, the title's import becomes all too clear. The book slogs its wholly predictable way to a completely foreseeable ending. Eloise might be full of surprises, but this story isn't.

The preceding books were about _attitude_, not _plot_. "Eloise Takes a Bawth" is almost all plot, and a poor one at that. Is it any wonder that Kaye Thompson suppressed it? It's a shame her family and publisher didn't respect her judgement.

Eloise "completists" will want "Eloise Takes a Bawth" for their collection, but they are warned -- ...

Who says bawths can' be fun?

About a little girl(Eloise), who is forced into taking a bath, in order to be clean for the Grand Ball. She spends a lot of time in the bawth, pretending to be a boat racer, a skier, and a surfer. She keeps filling the water up, and ends up flooding the whole bathroom. Her room happend to be just above the Ball room. Everyone at the ball is wondering how water is getting all over the place. They all think that one of the hotel's pipes has sprung a leak. Her father, one of the people who are important at the ball, comes up to her room to get her, and realizes she was causing all the water to be in the ball room. First she is in trouble, but then her father looks at what has happend to the Ball Room. It is a pretty good story with an ironic ending.

Funny!

I have been read Eloise since I was five years old and she never gets boring. This book is an excellent edition to the continious saga of Eloise. How can you do anything but love this precocious little girl? This is a great book for children, and adults will love it to.