Metro Pulse/Backstage/Last of the Red Hot Lovers

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What:
Last of the Red Hot Lovers

When:
Friday, August 31 and Saturday, September 1 at 8 p.m.

Where:
Theatre Central, 19 Market Square

Cost:
$5/$10. Call 936-2291 for info and reservations.

Wanton sex is harder than it looks

by Paige M. Travis

It's easy to have an affair. I mean, if you believe what you see on soap operas and Sex in the City, choosing a random partner from the crowds of people you encounter every day is a simple proposition. We're all sex-crazed animals who jump at the chance for anonymous pleasure and zero responsibility, right?

Well, the world has never been like movies and television would lead us to believe, not now and not in the early '70s when Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers was a Broadway smash. The reality is that our fascination with infidelity, the spiritual and familial consequences of cheating, never wanes. In the case of Simon's play, now at Theatre Central, one man's plan to cheat on his spouse is a lot more complicated—and funny—than expected.

Barney Cashman (Glen Glover) is a 47-year-old man who runs his father's seafood restaurant. Married to his high school sweetheart for 18 years, Barney's not unhappy, just dissatisfied. He's looking for something to make him feel alive. So instead of buying a sports car or taking an adventure vacation, Barney decides to orchestrate an affair. But Barney is not a player, a smooth talker or even very comfortable with himself. He's constantly a-jitter with nervous movement, conscious of the time, aware of his oyster-scented fingers, hypersensitive to every word. Glover's anxiety is almost too real, too constant. This hyperbole sets the tone for the rest of the play, which of course is a comedy, where exaggeration is part of the humor. While very little about Barney is nuanced or unpredictable, his potential lovers—all played by Mary Sue Greiner-Bell—provide a periodic table's worth of chemistry and surprises.

In the hands of a less flexible actress, the concept of having one woman play all three of Barney's possible lovers could've fallen short. It takes more than a wig and costume change to make us believe this is a whole different woman Barney has invited up to his mother's immaculate apartment. Greiner-Bell covers all the bases. Her stint in Scene One is as Elaine Navazio, a fast-talking married broad whom Barney met in his restaurant. She's covered this affair territory before and has very little patience with Barney's amateurish prattle. In fact, he can't do anything right as far as she's concerned, and she leaves in a huff.

In Scene Two, Greiner-Bell dons a peppy-young-actress outfit and big curly blond wig. Her face has turned from sour to sunny, her eyes bright and voice lifted and with a slight hint of California. As Bobbi Michelle, the actress proves herself a real comedian. Her energy level is high (in more ways than one), and she's all over the stage. She's paranoid one minute, singing the next. Glover is appropriately baffled by her, but he's mostly upstaged in this scene, which is fine. Greiner-Bell relishes in this wacky character, and the audience finds her antics hilarious.

She transforms once again in Scene Three into a worrying-Jewish-mother type, a friend of Barney's wife. Her face is pinched and pursed; she clutches her handbag as if her life depended on it. Jeanette Fisher isn't very likable; she's depressed, cynical and puts a great amount of faith in statistics about infidelity. She quotes one source as proving that "America is the only country that has more cheaters than readers." Jeanette may not be Barney's love match, but she does teach him a lesson. Perhaps without entirely meaning to, she makes him consider his actions without being smug about it. And although they don't indulge in physical passion, their relationship is the most intimate and important to Barney's ultimate realization.

The chemistry between the actors is hottest between Barney and Bobbi Michelle. Glover and Greiner-Bell are both best delivering monologues. Unfortunately, Barney's speech about why he wants to have an affair was cut almost in half, sacrificing some of our real empathy for the character. If director Mark Moffett has cut the play in order to keep the running time under two hours, his motivation is understandable (perhaps even commendable), but in this case the edit leaves out an important fact: Barney is afraid of death. It's significant that Barney tells this to cruel, sarcastic Elaine who he's determined to woo in some way. And it explains why, after his failures, he keeps trying again. While Moffett's plays are never short on laughs, some comedies have a deeper undercurrent that deserve more sensitive treatment. These actors are clearly capable of holding our attention and earning our sympathy. They just need to be given the time and direction to do it.

Last of the Red Hot Lovers is Theatre Central's first production in its new home in part of the old Watson's building in Market Square. The stage area is set up between two pillars, which leaves a huge amount of unused space. With all that potential for staging, could there be some changes in Theatre Central's traditionally small productions? It's an exciting possibility.