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Choir Boy
"An exhilarating, multi-layered new play."— The Guardian "Stirring and stylishly told . . . McCraney's crispest and most confident work."— Daily News "Greatly affecting. . . . It takes a brave writer to set his language against the plaintive beauty of the hymns and spirituals . . . but McCraney's speech holds its own, locating poetry even in casual vernacular and again demonstrating his gift for simile and metaphor."— The Village Voice The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys is dedicated to the creation of strong, ethical black men. Pharus wants nothing more than to take his rightful place as leader of the school's legendary gospel choir, but can he find his way inside the hallowed halls of this institution if he sings in his own key? Known for his unique brand of urban lyricism, Tarrell Alvin McCraney follows up his acclaimed trilogy The Brother/Sister Plays with this affecting portrait of a gay youth trying to find the courage to let the truth about himself be known. Set against the sorrowful sounds of hymns and spirituals, Choir Boy premiered at the Royal Court in London before receiving its Off-Broadway premiere in summer 2013 to critical and popular acclaim. Tarell Alvin McCraney is author of The Brother/Sister Plays : The Brothers Size , In the Red and Brown Water , and Marcus; Or the Secret of Sweet . Other works include Wig Out! , set in New York's drag clubs, and The Breach , which deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His awards include the 2009 Steinberg Playwrights Award and the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award.
112 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
November 16, 2025
so full of emotion, passion, hatred, resilience and pain.
June 11, 2021
3.5. I had high hopes for this play, and I did thoroughly enjoy it, but I will say that I feel like watching it would be a completely different experience that would truly amplify the script. This is one of those plays, similar to that of Indecent by Paula Vogel, that really relies on those visual and auditorial moments included in the piece in order to really experience, as audience, the creativity and intelligence behind the storyline. I do love Tarell Alvin McCraney’s writing though and I look forward to reading more of their plays.
August 28, 2022
Set in an all boy's, all African-American school, this play follows Pharus, a junior, finding his way in the world, at school and in general. The use of songs is brilliant-obviously one can't hear the characters sing, but pay attention to the lyrics as written, they inform the characters and the story. Funny and deeply moving-a great piece of theatre!
February 27, 2019
CHOICE OR DESIRE, GAYNESS SHOULD BE DISCUSSED OPENLY
It probably is not as good, or should I say as best, a play as some critics pretend or assert, but it is an interesting and somewhere invigorating play bringing up fundamental questions in a preparatory school for black boys. The cast is limited for obvious financial reasons but also to get to some concentrated matter and this concentration make sit a tremendous lot more effective?
Boys with boys will always be boys with boys. So, we expect some lack of courtesy, some violence, at least in words, some profane words too, some plain insanity, I mean provocative untrue ranting to make others rave like hell. And it works all the time. All the boys are a dense representation of a school choir with three voices, tenor, baritone and bass. We expect and we get the competition between the members and especially the competition between two tenors for the position of choir leader and first tenor, the one who does the solo performances. There are only two tenors.
The first tenor is the nephew of the principal of the school and as such believes he has rights that others do not have. He is ferociously aggressive end tenaciously disruptive, against both his classmates or choirmates and the only member of the faculty that is white, a historian who is supposed to make them think freely and openly, without any biased presumptions. The nephew of the principal, Bobby, is aggressive with everyone, particularly the second tenor and the white professor, Mr. Pendleton.
The second tenor is gay, and he has just been appointed choir leader for the next year at the beginning and Bobby will be appointed choir leader at the end of the opening year, since the second tenor, Pharus, is a senior and is graduating. You can easily imagine the thickly-buttered slice of cake Bobby is provided with, in this situation: he has the scapegoat he needs to concentrate his hate because it is repressed hate that he expresses in hostile attitudes. His hate has no real object, but anything can become such an object, the gayness of Pharus, or Pharus’s ideas about modernizing the feel and the sound of gospel music.
At the same time this school year, one week or so before commencement, ends with a fight in the showers between an unknown boy and Pharus who does not react and let himself be slightly damaged. The surprise, of course, is the identity of the aggressor. It is David, a younger boy who had become the lover of Pharus and the altercation takes place in the showers when Pharus was performing what we understand is oral intercourse, when someone else enters the showers and David has the violent reflex to beat up his lover to try to appear non-guilty, hence in a self-defense situation.
Apart from this situation, the play is rather blunt. The principal is in no way really assuming his position with authority when necessary and with compassion or empathy when needed. The white professor is not that much innovative, rather a good steam releaser, pressure reliever. He is able to speak to the young men and bring them to some kind of self-learning and mutual exchanges on any subject that could capture their attention. The students are making the real work and presenting their own reflection or research, which in a way enables them to coexist peacefully. But that does not prevent the final violence because the question of manly love is not taken into account collectively. It remains clandestine, something like a love black market among the young men, instead of being addressed by for example the white professor who has the occasion to do so one day when Bobby calls Pharus with a clearly derogative term. It is the type of insult or aggression a responsible educator cannot let go without bringing everyone to attention and sorting out the topic.
And do not believe it would be different if we were in a mixed preparatory school. It would only be slightly more complex since gay boys would deprive the girls of some possible friends.
Interesting, dynamic, but yet very cool, meaning not hot enough on the main topic of the play.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
It probably is not as good, or should I say as best, a play as some critics pretend or assert, but it is an interesting and somewhere invigorating play bringing up fundamental questions in a preparatory school for black boys. The cast is limited for obvious financial reasons but also to get to some concentrated matter and this concentration make sit a tremendous lot more effective?
Boys with boys will always be boys with boys. So, we expect some lack of courtesy, some violence, at least in words, some profane words too, some plain insanity, I mean provocative untrue ranting to make others rave like hell. And it works all the time. All the boys are a dense representation of a school choir with three voices, tenor, baritone and bass. We expect and we get the competition between the members and especially the competition between two tenors for the position of choir leader and first tenor, the one who does the solo performances. There are only two tenors.
The first tenor is the nephew of the principal of the school and as such believes he has rights that others do not have. He is ferociously aggressive end tenaciously disruptive, against both his classmates or choirmates and the only member of the faculty that is white, a historian who is supposed to make them think freely and openly, without any biased presumptions. The nephew of the principal, Bobby, is aggressive with everyone, particularly the second tenor and the white professor, Mr. Pendleton.
The second tenor is gay, and he has just been appointed choir leader for the next year at the beginning and Bobby will be appointed choir leader at the end of the opening year, since the second tenor, Pharus, is a senior and is graduating. You can easily imagine the thickly-buttered slice of cake Bobby is provided with, in this situation: he has the scapegoat he needs to concentrate his hate because it is repressed hate that he expresses in hostile attitudes. His hate has no real object, but anything can become such an object, the gayness of Pharus, or Pharus’s ideas about modernizing the feel and the sound of gospel music.
At the same time this school year, one week or so before commencement, ends with a fight in the showers between an unknown boy and Pharus who does not react and let himself be slightly damaged. The surprise, of course, is the identity of the aggressor. It is David, a younger boy who had become the lover of Pharus and the altercation takes place in the showers when Pharus was performing what we understand is oral intercourse, when someone else enters the showers and David has the violent reflex to beat up his lover to try to appear non-guilty, hence in a self-defense situation.
Apart from this situation, the play is rather blunt. The principal is in no way really assuming his position with authority when necessary and with compassion or empathy when needed. The white professor is not that much innovative, rather a good steam releaser, pressure reliever. He is able to speak to the young men and bring them to some kind of self-learning and mutual exchanges on any subject that could capture their attention. The students are making the real work and presenting their own reflection or research, which in a way enables them to coexist peacefully. But that does not prevent the final violence because the question of manly love is not taken into account collectively. It remains clandestine, something like a love black market among the young men, instead of being addressed by for example the white professor who has the occasion to do so one day when Bobby calls Pharus with a clearly derogative term. It is the type of insult or aggression a responsible educator cannot let go without bringing everyone to attention and sorting out the topic.
And do not believe it would be different if we were in a mixed preparatory school. It would only be slightly more complex since gay boys would deprive the girls of some possible friends.
Interesting, dynamic, but yet very cool, meaning not hot enough on the main topic of the play.
Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU
May 12, 2022
I purchased this play around a year ago and only now was able to read it. It's a lean, mean account of how the forces of power, homophobia, and history play out at a traditional black boarding school in which leadership in the choir is a coveted spot. The conflict that emerges among the schoolboys surrounding Pharus, the effeminate student who gets to sing the choir solo at the beginning of the year, is one that I won't forget. The only drawback to reading the play, beyond the normal differences between a book and live theater, is that a lot of this drama is told through music, and of course the reader of the play text can't listen to the music. I would love to see this onstage.
June 9, 2019
The dialogue is real, and the story is elegant.
The playwright creates visuals that are artistically beautiful.
The playwright creates visuals that are artistically beautiful.
April 14, 2020
4.5 stars
January 20, 2022
All men.
Deals with homophobia really well.
Love that the ending isn't entirely happy. Still happy enough moments at the end so that the play isn’t too depressing.
Love the tie back to the first scene with Bobby stopping singing.
Deals with homophobia really well.
Love that the ending isn't entirely happy. Still happy enough moments at the end so that the play isn’t too depressing.
Love the tie back to the first scene with Bobby stopping singing.
February 26, 2021
Kaitlyn.....we crushed it with this one.
February 23, 2020
Reading a play is always an interesting experience. Just the words on a page without a stage in front of you, and actors delivering their interpretation of the character they were cast for. Everything is left to the reader. With 'Choir Boy' I had no issue being drawn directly into the scene. I stepped right into Pharus' shoes, the taunts and slurs were directed at me. The anger, fear, and frustration was my own. 'Choir Boy' was an emotional, almost spiritual journey. We all have been Pharus.
January 18, 2020
Interesting premise and I like the structure, but it’s a difficult play to merely read. I think it has the potential of being a five star theatrical experience. Some of the materials falls too flat on the page.
September 4, 2021
Homophobia at a small Black boys school seems like a threat about to rip a choir apart, but perhaps love is the greater casualty. McCraney's quick gut punch of a drama reveals music's power, an enigmatic centerpiece character, and rule-following turning into blind and unhealthy devotion.
June 22, 2020
Succinct and heartbreaking and dangerous and lovely.
January 21, 2019
There is a lot to love in this play (currently being performed) about a group of young Black men in a choir at their elite prep school trying to figure out who they are, who they will be, and how they will be to each other. McCraney has an ear for voice and each character is deftly sketched, each line of dialogue ringing both true to life and true to the individuated people he has created. There are some interesting underlying ideas about adolescence, homophobia, racism, religion, interpersonal dynamics, and the power of human voices joined together. As a whole though, the work doesn't yet seem fully baked. It can have the feel of a series of scenes rather than a cohering plot, and lose a little interest and urgency because of it. There were moments where I was left feeling, "Ok this is well written, but why do I care what happens next?" I imagine that when staged the frequent musical interludes lend some of that wonder and propulsiveness, and an actor's inflection and body language bring wit and vulnerability to lines of Pharus' that can read more as petulant on the page. So it's hard to hold the limitations of the form against the work. Not my favorite of McCraney's, an enormous talent, but a quick read if you're wanting to see his development as an author, complete his opus, or simply love gospel music.
June 8, 2025
This is really great. It's a post-Black critique of many, many things we take for granted and don't speak about, not just history but also "how people are" and what we should and should not do. Formally, McCraney's play absolutely soars. It's filled with music, and then alternates that with tight, beautiful dialogue that propels the play forward at all times. It builds tension beautifully and then releases it with some really sublime gestures and action.
This is a play about the way we lie to ourselves and prefer to live in fantasies rather than deal with the people in front of us. This is one thing that has always puzzled me about how religious folks (by which, I guess, I mean my parents and other older relatives) deal with queer young people. A young person is in front of you talking about how they feel, talking about what they're afraid of, or about what they think might make them happy, and your response is that you think the rules you've learned are more important than connecting with that young person whom you claim to love? The rules are more important than the young person? What I really like about the way Choir Boy works is that it calls out this fantasy of the rules. Things ought to be some sort of way?? Oh really? Well they aren't. So let's start dealing with how things are, and work on loving young people the way they are.
This is a play about the way we lie to ourselves and prefer to live in fantasies rather than deal with the people in front of us. This is one thing that has always puzzled me about how religious folks (by which, I guess, I mean my parents and other older relatives) deal with queer young people. A young person is in front of you talking about how they feel, talking about what they're afraid of, or about what they think might make them happy, and your response is that you think the rules you've learned are more important than connecting with that young person whom you claim to love? The rules are more important than the young person? What I really like about the way Choir Boy works is that it calls out this fantasy of the rules. Things ought to be some sort of way?? Oh really? Well they aren't. So let's start dealing with how things are, and work on loving young people the way they are.
May 15, 2024
While I enjoyed the book, I definitely believe that it is clearly better suited for the stage - if I saw it live I likely would give it 5 stars. It is meant to be experienced. But reading it, to me, was simply not all that interesting...I thought of upgrading the rating, but I would say a 3.5 is fair. It's short and quick (I got distracted by other book club books). There are much more extensive rviews on here, so not much else to say. I am sorry that I did not see it performed. Reading a play is something that I personally have always struggled with. He is a superb writer and I would encourage anyone to see it live if at all possible. As for reading it, that depends on how you feel about reading a play? Maybe listening to it would even be better? Hoping for more from this very talented writer...
Read
August 12, 2023Wow. I've read two other plays by McCraney and honestly didn't understand them. This was understandable and also touched upon so many things. Pharus completely broke my heart. I wasn't expecting the twist at the end, or the way that even the faculty treated him. It made my heart hurt. This just felt so real, I couldn't stop reading, couldn't stop hoping for a happy ending. But it wasn't so depressing that it made me want to die. It also felt extremely Black.
I felt weird about the white character who lectured the boys about saying the n-word, but I know lots of older white people like that, especially ones who were part of the Civil Rights Movement. This explores the way adults fail the kids in their lives, especially when they're queer. God. This was a gut punch, but so, so good.
I felt weird about the white character who lectured the boys about saying the n-word, but I know lots of older white people like that, especially ones who were part of the Civil Rights Movement. This explores the way adults fail the kids in their lives, especially when they're queer. God. This was a gut punch, but so, so good.
August 2, 2023
At once entirely focused on the boys who inhabit the school and also focused on big ideas about growing up as a black man vs. growing up as a black queer man, and your relationship with both God and your fellow man which results.
Each character feels like a separate, complicated response to that core question. McCraney perfectly juggles the line of letting these teenagers be both representative of bigger ideas, while still being deep characters and not symbols. The ending is inevitable and powerful, and will keep the play in my thoughts for the next while.
Each character feels like a separate, complicated response to that core question. McCraney perfectly juggles the line of letting these teenagers be both representative of bigger ideas, while still being deep characters and not symbols. The ending is inevitable and powerful, and will keep the play in my thoughts for the next while.
February 9, 2020
4.5 stars. probably would be a full 5 if i could have seen it performed
"He heard what my brother said about him though.
He kept talking to me but looking away
Like he was apologizing for something.
I wanted to tell him: Pharus
Don't you.. don't you look down.
You been nicer to me than my
Blood ever, boy, don't you look down.
Pick your head up boy. Up.
But I ain't say anything.
I just let him look."
"He heard what my brother said about him though.
He kept talking to me but looking away
Like he was apologizing for something.
I wanted to tell him: Pharus
Don't you.. don't you look down.
You been nicer to me than my
Blood ever, boy, don't you look down.
Pick your head up boy. Up.
But I ain't say anything.
I just let him look."
Read
December 20, 2022Started this a little bit ago, but finally finished it yesterday! I found this play at a little free library in Boston (which was stacked, by the way). I was inspired to pick it up because of the Tony performance from a couple years ago with Jeremy Pope singing, which I watched almost every day since then. I enjoyed this play! I REALLY wish I could have seen it while it was still on Broadway. (Especially because of Jeremy Pope...)
March 19, 2023
This is a beautifully written play that I was able to read immediately after seeing it performed. The biggest takeaway is that this is a performer’s script, not necessarily a reader’s one — the music is so key to its success, and the humor is driven by the actors’ personalities. That said, the play is a quick, fantastic read as well — and one I definitely recommend if you’re interested in contemporary theatre.
January 6, 2019
The story is good although not terribly surprising. An introspection on what we are forcing young men to be and to represent.
The dialect can be difficult to read if you are not familiar with the vernacular.
The dialect can be difficult to read if you are not familiar with the vernacular.
March 6, 2020
We are "shopping" for LGBTQ+ reads for American Studies. I liked this play very much, but would prefer to see it staged than read it. (It relies heavily on the power of the choir, literally and literarily. That's hard to come by on the page.)
August 30, 2020
I mean, it's hard for me to not see myself in his stuff. That said, Mr. Pendleton, until he becomes a three-dimensional person (and not just a caricature), is the funniest white version of Stepin Fetchitt.
April 8, 2021
Play was a good,easy read but definitely think it’s made for the stage! Sad I missed the opportunity to see it live but maybe in the future! Would recommend for play lovers though who are much better at understanding stage directions than I am hahaha!
January 1, 2023
Quite literally my favorite play I have ever read and seen. This play also includes my favorite line included in any type of media, but I refuse to spoil that until you have experienced it for yourself.
July 3, 2024
I really want to see this live and see how the visual elements contribute to the story. I could sense that there was a deeply vulnerable emotionality to the play, but it was hard to fully realize/feel the impact of that from the sparse writing/stage directions.
August 15, 2025
Loved the way this story was told. The slice of life approach, following each boy at different parts, really helps to weave together this complicated portrait of the struggle between tradition and modernity.
Read
April 5, 2019really sweet. would've loved to have seen it at the RC so I could've heard the boys singing, but a lovely quick read. (ML)
June 30, 2019
A beautifully written, if predictable, play about tensions at a black boys prep school.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews