Making the Boys

Captivating documentary about the creation of, and reaction to, the breakthrough play "The Boys in the Band."

Making the Boys reveals just how bound up Crowley's play is with the history of the gay community, most heartbreakingly in the number of original company members who died from AIDS.

The hopelessly dated 1968 play "The Boys in the Band" yields a surprisingly sprightly and multifaceted documentary, Making the Boys.

Though some of this material is fascinating, it feels like a rambling postscript to the real story, with Robey, with the benefit of hindsight, too eager to make "The Boys in the Band" snugly fit in the grand sweep of gay history, right down to California's Prop. 8.

The most illuminating nuggets come from playwrights, authors and journalists, including Tony Kushner, Terrence McNally, Larry Kramer, Michael Cunningham, Paul Rudnick, Dan Savageand the late Dominick Dunne, who helped get the movie version made.

Ignore the documentary's regrettable low-rent look and that kitschy "Love, American Style" soundtrack, and just focus on how this portrait turns a work of art into a sociological flash point.

Crayton Robey's documentary on this queer cultural touchstone admirably presents both sides of the divide.