Chayefsky’s last produced play is a patchily brilliant, heavily flawed work, destined to not be revived for a while due to an unfortunate beginning idea: a gay middle aged novelist who has a hit gets married for tax purposes and finds himself enjoying the straight life.
It’s a shame this element of the plot is in there because it’s dated, isn’t that funny and isn’t really needed – this is really a satire on corporations (business laws, taxes, trust funds, shares, debentures) and how one man allows himself to turn into a corporation… kind of like The Hospital meets Rhinoceros, only for business.
Some absolutely brilliant dialogue and speeches but too much of it is hitting the same note, i.e. long monologues describing business stuff (not having characters making fun of it, just describing it). So the play goes on too long – this felt like it would be a really effective one act play.
Some of those notes are terrific, though – it hits real heights and it’s a shame Chayefsky refused to sell the film rights to Joe Levine (apparently because Levine intended to star Zero Mostel, who played the role on stage and had been hard to deal with). Oh, it’s another Chayefsky work where a hot young girl is horny for a middle aged man.
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