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| 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.