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| Peter Maloney, Ben Gazzara. |
HUGHIE and DUET [Dramatic Revivals] D: Martin Fried; S: Kert Lundell; C: Ruth Morley; L: Marc B. Weiss; P: Jay Julien i/a/w Sidney Eden; T: John Golden Theatre; 2/11/75-3/8/75 (31)
“Hughie” A: Eugene O’Neill; “Duet” A: David Scott Milton
A pair of one-acts, each set in a seedy Times Square hotel lobby,
giving Ben Gazzara a chance to play two markedly different roles. Neither play
appealed widely, but Gazzara’s star turn was of interest. This was a limited
run, touring production.
“Hughie,” a 1942 O’Neill play, was first staged in Sweden in 1958, starring Bengt Eklund. In 1963, it was given its English-language premiere at the Royal Theatre, Bath, in England, with American star Burgess Meredith. New York first saw it in 1964, with Jason Robards, Jr., in a Tony-nominated performance.
Gazzara played the down-and-out gambler Erie Smith, who, like Hickey in The Iceman Cometh, pours out his special brand of pipe-dream chatter to the receptive ears of a nearly silent night clerk (Peter Maloney). John Simon said Gazzara merely skimmed the surface of the character, but others tended to appreciate his work. One was Clive Barnes, who said, “Mr. Gazzara, with his indelible grin, sadly creased face, and air of punchdrunk confidence . . . is a joy to watch. He is playing a real man who has elected to make a caricature of himself." Martin Gottfried went so far as to call him “flawless.”
“Hughie,” a 1942 O’Neill play, was first staged in Sweden in 1958, starring Bengt Eklund. In 1963, it was given its English-language premiere at the Royal Theatre, Bath, in England, with American star Burgess Meredith. New York first saw it in 1964, with Jason Robards, Jr., in a Tony-nominated performance.
Gazzara played the down-and-out gambler Erie Smith, who, like Hickey in The Iceman Cometh, pours out his special brand of pipe-dream chatter to the receptive ears of a nearly silent night clerk (Peter Maloney). John Simon said Gazzara merely skimmed the surface of the character, but others tended to appreciate his work. One was Clive Barnes, who said, “Mr. Gazzara, with his indelible grin, sadly creased face, and air of punchdrunk confidence . . . is a joy to watch. He is playing a real man who has elected to make a caricature of himself." Martin Gottfried went so far as to call him “flawless.”
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| Ben Gazzara. |
Several thought the play failed because it did not include O’Neill’s
instructions to use a special sound track and background film of New York.
David Scott Milton’s “Duet,” a black farce originally done Off Broadway
at the American Place Theatre in 1970, gave the actor a chance for some flashy
and funny histrionics as a schizophrenic night clerk suffering from the fear
that he’s a target of a Russian plot to have the Mafia kill him.