Tuesday, September 1, 2020

319 A LOOK BACK AT EACH OTHER. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

 

Steven Weiser, Hattie Crystal.

A LOOK BACK AT EACH OTHER [Drama/Abortion/Homosexuality/Marriage/Sex] A: Paul Pagano (Paul Phillips); D: Lester Goldman; S: Gene Becker; C: Nancy Carney; L: Charles Diaz; P: Jen-Laura Productions; T: Masque Theatre (OB); 5/21/74-5/3/74 (3)

Although it was dismissed as an awful play, and closed after three showings, the long-forgotten A Look Back at Each Other hinted at what was likely considered impossible in 1974—gay marriage and the adoption by gay spouses of children born to surrogate mothers. It was also notably antiabortion.

Mark (Steve Weiser) is “married” to Dan (Paul Phillips), his gay lover. To cement their relationship Mark gets a woman pregnant and convinces her to desist from having an abortion so that he can have the baby for Dan and himself to raise. In the end, both the woman and Dan leave him.

Mel Gussow called the plot “absurd,” the play “shabby,” and the acting “perfunctory.” Seeing it at a preview, the critic thought it “so enfeebled” that he was surprised it ever opened. In Richard Watts’s judgment, A Look Back at Each Other was “clumsy and inept.” 

The Masque Theatre was where today’s Theatre Row is situated.