Mart Crowley, Laurence Luckinbill & More Look Back on the Origins of THE BOYS IN THE BAND-' It Was a Very Dangerous Time'

The Boys in the Band finally got its big Broadway opening last night.

A sensation when it premiered in April 1968, the play was originally scheduled to run for five performances at the Playwrights' Unit, a small off-Broadway venue. Overnight, the show became the talk of the town for its unflinchingly honest depiction of gay life, and transferred to Theater Four on West 55th Street, running for over 1,000 performances. The entire original company performed the show to great acclaim in London and also appeared in William Friedkin's 1970 film version.

Playwright Mart Crowley was on the red carpet to celebrate the momentous occasion. "I'm just so happy that I lived to see it! I've wished for this for a very long time and I owe it all to Ryan Murphy. He's the man who has this extraordinary clairvoyance about what's gonna click next year."

Laurence Luckinbill, who played Hank in both the original off Broadway cast and the 1970 film, recalled: "[Mart] brought the play to me and he was very distressed because no one wanted to read it. I read it and told him right away that I would do it. The morning after the opening I was crossing the street to cash a check and I saw a huge crowd of people. There were 50 seats in that theatre... and there were at least 400 men waiting to get in. From word of mouth! I thought, 'This is the place I want to be. This is social justice.'

Actor Robert Wagner, a close friend of Crowley, added: "So much has happened since then. It was a very dangerous time."

"There were only two guys in the cast who were straight: me and Cliff [Gorman]," explained Luckinbill. "All of the other guys took a greater risk than we did. They were outing themselves. These guys tonight are already out, so that's a different story. People tell me, 'Oh, you took a chance,' but I took less of a chance than they did. I am honoring them tonight because I miss them and I am thinking about them."

Click here to watch their full red carpet interviews!

Directed by Joe Mantello and produced by Ryan Murphy and David Stone, The Boys in the Band officially opens on Broadway tonight. Mart Crowley's groundbreaking 1968 play, The Boys in the Band, centers on a group of gay men who gather in a NYC apartment for a friend's birthday party. After the drinks are poured and the music turned up, the evening slowly exposes the fault-lines beneath their friendships and the self-inflicted heartache that threatens their solidarity.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos