The History Boys The History Boys The History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where 185 performances were staged before it closed on 1 October 2006. The play won multiple awards, including the 2005 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play and the 2006 Tony Award for Best Play. The play opens in Cutlers' Grammar School, Sheffield, a fictional boys' grammar school in the north of England. Set in the early 1980s, the play
The Boys in the Band (play) containing the full dialogue of the play voiced by the original actors. Crowley wrote the sequel "The Men from the Boys". In 2002, Peter Filichia from "Theater Mania" contended that the play's original production helped inspire the 1969 Stonewall riots and gay rights movement. In 2004, David Anthony Fox from "Philadelphia City Paper" praised this play, its one-liners, and its live performance in Philadelphia. He rebutted criticism that the play portrayed "urban gay men as narcissistic, bitter, shallow". In 2010, Elyse Summer in her review for "CurtainUp" called it a "smart gimmick" full of dated "self-homophobic, low self-esteem characters". In