THE CASTRO COMPLEX
 |
| Marian Hailey, Raul Julia. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
Reviews of live theatre being impossible during these
days of the pandemic, THEATRE'S LEITER SIDE is pleased to provide instead
accounts of previous theatre seasons--encompassing the years 1970-1975-for
theatre-hungry readers. If you'd like to know the background on how this
previously unpublished series came to be and what its relationship is to my
three The
Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New York
play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the list at
the end of the current entry.
 |
| Terry Kiser, Marian Hailey. |
THE CARPENTERS [Drama/Family] A:
Steven Tesich; D: Eugene Lesser; S: Kert Lundell; C: Jeanne Button; L: William
Mintzer; P: American Place Theatre; T: St. Clements Church (OB);
12/10/70-1/16/71 (49)
THE
CASTRO COMPLEX [Comedy/Romance/Sex] A: Mel Arrighi; D: James Burrows; S: Kert
Lundell; C: John T. Whitmore; L: Roger Morgan; P: Jeff Britton; T: Staircase
Theatre (OB); 11/18/70-11/22/70 (7)
A
silly play about a New York girl named Betsy Kress (Marian Hailey) who is so
sexually attracted to Fidel Castro that she forces her boyfriend, Hadley Marcus
(Terry Kiser), to dress as the Cuban leader—cigar, fatigues, false beard,
accent—and role-play fantasy games with her, even treating her roughly, to work
up her libido for love making. A third party named Paco Montoya (Raul Julia),
claiming to be an Argentine revolutionary on the lam from the CIA (and, bearded
and wearing a beret, looking like Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara),
intrudes. Or could he be a Puerto Rican who owns a Lower East Side gift shop? The
two men are soon involved in a rivalry for the young woman, somewhat to the
stranger’s discomfort.
Richard
Watts thought it “a pleasant little comedy” but Edith Oliver called it “a hokey
but nevertheless merry little farce” with “many foolish and annoying, and even
a few painful moments.” Mel Gussow shuddered at its dopey premise and stock character.
Regarding the show’s future star, he wrote, “As played by Raul Julia, Paco
provides most of what small enjoyment there is in this comedy. But the smart,
wisecracking Puerto Rican is in danger of becoming a stage convention.”
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell Revue
Black Girl
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed
Butley
Button, Button
Buy Bonds, Buster
The Cage
Camille
Candide (1)
Candide (2)
The Candyapple
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
The Caretaker
La Carpa de los Raquichis
The Carpenters
