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| Delphine Seyrig, Richard Benjamin. |
THE
LITTLE BLACK BOOK [Comedy/French/Romance/Two Characters] A:
Jean-Claude Carrière; TR: Jerome
Kilty; D: Milos Forman; S: Oliver Smith; C: Sara Brook; L: Martin
Aronstein; P: Arthur Cantor; T: Helen Hayes Theatre; 4/25/72-4/29/72 (4)
This was a French comedy by a well-known writer of novels and
screenplays (who would later enjoy a major artistic relationship with British
director Peter Brook), staged by a famous Czech movie director (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest), and
starring two much-respected actors. Nevertheless, The Little Black Book, at least in its English version, was so
weakly written that it was incapable of mustering enough support to run more
than a week.
It tells of two characters: an attractive young Manhattan bachelor lawyer (the original is set in Paris)—A Man (Richard Benjamin)—who pursues
and conquers good-looking women and keeps an account of them in his little
black book—and A Woman (Delphine Seyrig)—a beautiful but mysterious blonde who
arrives at his apartment unannounced, as if by mistake. Soon, though, she
settles in to live with him. Before long, she is playing seemingly cruel love
jokes on him, leading him to quit his job so as to seclude himself from the
world with this woman he’s grown mad about. He then departs, promising to visit
regularly.
The critics were bothered by the odd and sometimes
baffling plot, the inconsistent characters, an inconclusive ending, and the
lack of wit. “For a straight comedy, it does not have quite enough laughs; for
a quasi-realistic play, it is a bit absurd; for real absurdism, it is too tame
by half,” griped John Simon.
Simon and most others, though, were impressed by
the polished performances of both stars, especially Seyrig, a French actress
who had played the same role in Paris.