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| Joan Rivers, Gabriel Dell. |
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| Joan Rivers, Paul Ford, Gabriel Dell, Rose Marie. |
A gag-filled exercise coauthored by and starring top nightclub
comedienne Joan Rivers as Jill Fairchild, a pop singer of Jewish background
living in New York City and beset with numerous problems of urban living and
family relationships. Many of the urban jokes reminded critics of their more
successful treatment in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue.
Jill’s live-in boyfriend, Paul Martin (Gabriel Dell), plays
the violin in the Radio City Music Hall orchestra. She uses her involvement as
an activist in various liberal causes to avoid marrying him until, after a seven-year
affair, Paul decides to get hitched.
The critics bewailed the absence of a play and characters
amid the nonstop stream of wisecracks about the city and its ethnic types. Despite
a driving pace and comedically talented players, including Rose Marie, Paul Ford, and Louis Zorich, the farce fell on its face.
Brendan Gill called it “totally without merit,” John Simon said it was “not
within its feeble power to be about anything,” and Mel Gussow noted its lack of
form and momentum. All in all, Fun City was anything but fun.