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| George Rose, Lynn Redgrave, John Lithgow. |
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| Lynn Redgrave, George Rose. |
My Fat Friend is
set in the North London house of Vicky (Lynn Redgrave), a plump partridge of a
bookseller whose shop is part of her home. She has two boarders: an engagingly
witty, campily effeminate, gay civil servant named Henry (George Rose), and a
dour young Scottish novelist named James (John Lithgow). One day a Canadian
sociologist, Tom (James Ray Weeks), shows up at the shop, falls for the
overweight bookseller, spends a night with her, and departs for Iran, promising
to return.
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| Lynn Redgrave, George Rose. |
During his absence, Vicky succumbs to the motherly
ministrations of Henry and goes on a diet that helps her shed 60 pounds. When
Tom returns, he finds a svelte, gorgeous lady where once he
knew a chubby charmer. Unfortunately, he admits to a taste for extra flesh and
soon leaves Vicky a lonely, if wiser and more attractive, woman.
Despite the thinness of the plot, and what would now be
considered by pc advocates as a clueless preoccupation with conventional
standards of feminine appeal, few critics were strongly negative. It was too
consistently funny, even with its plethora of bathroom, homosexual, and obesity
gags. Its finely honed cast played the comedy for all it was worth, spurring the show onto a decent run.
John Beaufort called it “a silly, funny, sometimes vulgar,
occasionally touching little nonsense.” Martin Gottfried was one of the few outright
assailants of this trifle: “My Fat Friend
is worse than bad. It is nothing at all.”
Lynn Redgrave gave her usual
outstanding performance, but her role was not especially challenging. It was
George Rose who stole the show (and the reviews) and whose queen of a middle-aged,
waspish lodger and friend laid ‘em in the aisles. This “unusually gay guy,” as
Clive Barnes commented, was given the bulk of the best comic lines, and did—as
per his talent—as much with the as humanly possible. “His naughtiness is
irrepressible,” said Barnes, “and he spits his lines out with a sheer delight
for his own cleverness. . . . [H]e also portrays the role’s few serious moments
with a convincing and touching sincerity.” Rose was given a Tony nomination for
Best Supporting Actor, Play, as well as a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding
Performance.