University of Virginia Library

Overweight Nobody

The four actors, however, deserve
nothing but the highest
laurels. As Barney, James Coco rises
admirably to the difficult task of
conveying the desires, the regrets,
and the fumblings of an overweight
nobody whose biggest claim to
fame is the alliterative menus he
writes. The owner of "Queen of the
Sea" is at once comic and pathetic.
Mr. Coco makes us laugh at the
ridiculousness of the man, and then
makes a point of reminding us that
Barney is our friendly milkman, is
our neighborhood grocer, is our
mailman who smiles after being
bitten by our dog. And Mr. Coco is
an extremely talented actor.

Moving to his women, Doris
Roberts wonderfully frowns her
way through the part of his wife's
best friend. Like Barney, she is an
ordinary being in a middle-aged rut.
Linda Lavin is the prettiest of the
three and is delightful as the lady
with smoker's cough in desperate
need of a cigarette. Marcia Rodd
plays the talkative pick-up in act
two with a youthful bounce and
she makes the most of the least
successful of Mr. Simon's
characters.

Notice I say "least successful"
and not "unsuccessful." Mr.
Simon's play, like his career, cannot
be measured in terms of success and
failure; it must be measured in
varying degrees of success. "Last of
the Red Hot Lovers" is less
successful than some of the
author's previous works and therefore
a disappointment. But it is
often funny, it is beautifully
structured, and it does have something
worthwhile to say. I recommend
it.

One final word. You really have
to give the playwright credit for his
handling of the business end of the
project. Of course, he receives 10%
of the weekly gross as his author's
share, and since "Last of the Red
Hot Lovers" is now an SRO hit that
means almost $6,000 a week. But
he also financed the play himself,
which is to say that he receives
about 100% of all clear-cut profits,
which rockets into the five-figure
mark each week. And, finally, he
booked the play into the Eugene
O'Neill Theatre, which he rented
with no difficulty from its owner,
whose name also happens to be Neil
Simon.