Sunday, January 31, 2021

457. SCORE. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975.

Michael Beirne,, Claire Wilbur, Lynn Swann, Sylvester E. Stallone.
SCORE [Comedy/Homosexuality/Marriage/Sex] A/D: Jerry Douglas; S: T.E. Mason; L: Candace King; P: Michael Harvey; T: Martinique Theatre (OB); 10/28/70-11/15/70 (23)

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.