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| Michael Beirne,, Claire Wilbur, Lynn Swann, Sylvester E. Stallone. |
Sylvester Stallone was still in the starving actor stage of
his career (he was billed as Sylvester E. Stallone) when he appeared in the secondary role of Mike, a lusty phone repairman, in this comic embarrassment
about sex-swapping. The New
York Times’s review was headlined: “Nude Sex Play Opens at the Martinique.” Set in Queens, Score tells of a bisexual couple, Jack (Michael Beirne), a cheesecake
photographer, and wife, Elvira (Claire Wilbur), a concert pianist, who keep a
competitive score of how many friends they can seduce within preset time
limits.
An orgy transpires with Betsy (Lynn Swann, no, not the great football player), a Catholic lesbian inspired to say her first “God damn!” after enjoying the experience, and Eddie
(Ben Wilson), an accountant who enjoys bowling. This product of the theatre’s so-called
sexual liberation in the early 70s offered nudity and pot-smoking aplenty, with
a good deal of simulated love making.
The show was forced by an Off-Broadway actors’ strike to
close early, but its reviews offered little promise of continued interest. Mel
Gussow concluded his review by saying, “Superficially there is a certain
professionalism in this production. The lights work. The acting is not all bad.
And there is even a tinny laugh or two. But beneath the pseudo-sophisticated
surface, the play is not very different from a pornographic paperback. Except
that the price of tickets runs as high as $10.”
In 1974, the play was made into a pornographic movie, described in this Wikipedia article, which also throws some light on the play.
