BWW Reviews: THE LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS Caps Theatre Harrisburg Season

Author's note: One hates to present a review past the fact when it can be avoided. Unfortunately, family events in this reviewer's life have complicated certain matters, for which apologies are heartily extended to Theatre Harrisburg.

THE LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS is one of Neil Simon's earlier classics, and classic is indeed the case. Although much of Simon's work is not only nostalgic at this point but also feels dated in its presentation, THE LAST OF actually holds up amazingly well as a look back at the late Sixties and the failures of the sexual revolution of the time to take hold everywhere. They particularly fail to take hold for restaurateur Barney Cashman, possibly New York's best seafood purveyor, but undoubtedly its least successful swinger.

At Theatre Harrisburg, Barney's been portrayed by Richard Dennis Johnson with an air vaguely reminiscent of actor William Daniels - which is no bad thing, if one remembers Daniels' days before playing the irascible Dr. Mark Craig, when he took numerous comic roles playing nice guys. Because Barney Cashman is the ultimate nice guy, and he admits it. He's met the 1960's and he's decided it's time for an affair. The only problem is there's no guidebook for truly nice guys who want to try to cheat.

If there's a Rule One in that book, however, it might be "Don't borrow mama's apartment." All of Barney's attempted conquests take place in, and fail, at his mother's city apartment, more convenient to his restaurant than is his suburban home in Great Neck, where his lovely wife Thelma might also be found. All of the action - or possibly the lack of it, in Barney's case - takes place there while his mother is out. (Except for a brief moment when he's out, and his mother, mimed delightfully by Lydia Jane Graeff, finds the remnants of his last attempted conquest.)

Lydia Jane Graeff, Chelsea Day, and Lisa Jean Weitzman play his three attempted mistresses - Graeff as a hard-bitten middle aged woman who's only in it for the sex - she's been around the block rather more than Barney - and who can't stand his efforts to try to connect with her. Day is adorably funny as a neurotic young actress/singer from California, a bit of a hippie, who introduces Barney to her relaxant of choice, giving him his first encounter with marijuana even though the rest of the encounter with her never comes off. His last candidate, played by Weitzman, is a friend of his and Thelma's, who has worse problems than either of the other two, including serious depression, her own failing marriage, and her belief that Thelma is the greatest person she, Barney, or anyone else, knows.

If it looks like a sex farce, the problem is that it's Neil Simon. Simon's not a farceur, he's an observer of the human condition, and he realizes just how absurd it can be, which is what makes him a comic playwright. Barney's failure at sneaking around is the same experience most spouses who think about cheating, but who don't - and that's still a lot of people in this country - believe they'd have if they tried doing it. Because most people who are decent at heart are still the people who believe they'll be the one caught, despite everyone else getting away with sticking their fingers in the candy jar. Barney is every nice guy who's thought he's entitled to something different for once, but who knows it's just not going to happen for him. Barney is the symbol of marital guilty hopes and frustrations that are bound to fail because at heart the person involved isn't sneaky or devious enough to get away with their fantasy, and he or she knows it.

Johnson's marijuana scene is possibly the funniest moment of a funny show, though Day does a scarily fine job displaying her character's paranoia and her sexual obsessions - her leather-clad dominatrix landlady, with whom she's sleeping, on the one hand, and an obsessive fear of lurkers and stalkers that's creepily evocative of Sharon Tate. Weitzman is compelling to watch, although not in the least funny, as the friend who can't imagine why she really decided to come to meet Barney and who proceeds to talk them both out of the intended events.

Director Robert Campbell guided this production with some excellent pacing and a cast sure of their timing, which is what makes comedy work. Despite its setting in the Sixties, THE LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS tells some fundamental truths about marriage that are still true today.

Theatre Harrisburg follows this with its summer concert in July and an upcoming season featuring THE PHILADELPHIA STORY and WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. For information about these and about Theatre Harrisburg generally, visit www.theatreharrisburg.com.

Photo credit: Theatre Harrisburg

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