During a brief NYC theatrical re-release of The Boys in the Band on its 30th anniversary, I tracked down and interviewed Gorman (who played the flaming Emory and died in 2002) and Reuben Greene, who played Bernard. This was the last known interview in which either discussed Boys.
Lawrence Ferber: Boys in the Band began its life as a 10-performance, workshopped piece at Manhattan's Van Damm theater?
Cliff Gorman: It was supposed to only be a week—no pay. One week became two weeks and two weeks became three weeks. The audience was screaming the first few nights and we thought the scenery fell or something.
Lawrence Ferber: Was Emory, one of the film's most oft-quoted and memorable characters, based upon anyone you knew in real life?
Cliff Gorman: It was a combination of characters, mainly a guy named Benny who used to hang out in the neighborhood. We were interviewed by David Suskind once and he asked if I studied Oscar Wilde and went into the archives of homosexuality to study the nature of the man, the beast. And I said, "No, it's just Benny from the corner."
Lawrence Ferber: Was Bernard more of a mess than we can tell? Of all the characters he seems to have the most level head.
Reuben Greene: From what I got out of the play, he was very isolated. He worked at a bookstore so he probably liked to read. I wouldn't call him a nerd but I think the main thing was he was isolated as a Black person and a homosexual.
Lawrence Ferber: As far as your career, what was the most immediate effect that Boys had at the time?
Cliff Gorman: Although there was a lot of publicity saying I was nothing like that character, nobody knew who or what I was. I went to audition for Neil Simon—I did Chapter Two on Broadway with Judd Hirsch—and Neil said, "I have to tell you the truth, I saw you in the play and thought you came right out of a hat shop."
Lawrence Ferber: What impact has the other cast members' passing had on you?
Reuben Greene: "If I was close to anyone, it was probably to Leonard Fry [who played Harold]. He was very available, a very loving person. I've always been kind of a loner so I don't socialize a lot."
Lawrence Ferber: You all say you love and support Mart's sequel, The Men From the Boys, but would you actually participate in a full-scale production of it?
Cliff Gorman: I said to Mart, "I wish you well, but once was enough." I'm not interested in recreating that role. I think it was, in its time and place, just right, and I just don't want to go back again.
Reuben Greene: I've never said this; this is a personal statement. I'm not a gay person. I don't know if I would do another gay film or play. I'd like to think underneath all those colors we project there's a human being, but I also think there's another experience that someone else can bring. Someone who has had that experience, and I don't know if I'm capable of doing that."
Lawrence Ferber: But you're not left out of the legacy.
Cliff Gorman: People go, "Do [in Emory's voice] 'Connie Casserole' or 'Oh Mary, it takes a fairy to make something pretty!''' People, like truck drivers, come up with lines I don't even remember.
Lawrence Ferber: People who would have beaten the character up back then.
Cliff Gorman: Exactly.
