The History Boys. A play by Alan Bennett. Broadhurst Theatre. My wife and I loathed The History Boys! So far, I have only talked to two human beings who agree with us, so we are definitely out of step with the majority who have raved about the play and with the various organizations that have heaped awards on it both here and in the UK.
We felt the play was overlong and lacked focus, and the direction, laced with "Yellow Submarine" mod style videos, was tiresome and cliched.
What bothered us the most was the play's cavalier attitude towards the molestation of male students by a charismatic but increasingly marginalized teacher, and the ridicule piled on the headmaster who fires him for it. While the students all get into Oxford, they appear to fail in later life, and the young teacher who succeeds his older colleague (and may share his fatal flaw) ends up crippled and corroded in his life and later career. This is a play that, to us, despises the British education system and all who participate in it. The only value we discerned in the play lies in the good performances from the boys, but as a father of an NYU college student, I was appalled by the muck these Oxford bound "History Boys" appear to be stuck in. It's hard for me to believe that any of them would make it into perhaps the world's most famous and venerated University. We give this a near failing grade in the Broadway Bridge and Tunnel Test. Because of the good performance of the young men and an enjoyable, if overpraised turn by Frances De La Tour, we give this a D+