Abstract
This article analyzes the transformation in the critical reception of the play The Boys in the Band, by playwright Mart Crowley, and of its cinematographic version, focusing on the short period between the launch of the play in 1968 and the film in 1970. It starts with a brief historical contextualization and an analysis of the pioneering aspects of the work and its adaptations, as well as its critical reevaluations raised by the weight of the surrounding historical events, in particular the Stonewall riots, an important milestone for the LGBTQI+ Movement worldwide, which took place in 1969. In the context of analyzing the reception to Crowley’s original text, reflections by the critic Hans Robert Jauss on the horizon of expectations - of the readers and the one raised by a literary work – served as theoretical support.
Keywords
Theater; Cinema; Gay Movement; Adaptation; Horizon of expectations