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'The Ritz' Is Back After 3 Decades

Terrence McNally's "The Ritz" was born during the 1970s sexual revolution, an era of liberation extravagantly celebrated at the Continental Baths, a gay New York bathhouse where an unknown Bette Midler, Barry Manilow, Wayland Flowers and others once performed for a towel-clad audience.

Today, its author calls the play, set in a bathhouse not unlike that exotic establishment, "a period piece."

"There was a time at the height of the AIDS crisis that I would not have allowed a revival ..., but I think we're ready to see it again," McNally says.

Enter the Roundabout Theatre Company, which has revived the comedy at another iconic 1970s landmark, Studio 54, in a production directed by Joe Mantello and starring Kevin Chamberlin and Rosie Perez.

"`The Ritz' is a sex farce, my tribute to Feydeau," says McNally, the author of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and "Master Class" as well as the books for such musicals as "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Ragtime" and "The Full Monty," referring to Georges Feydeau, the master of French farce during the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.

"I always wanted to write in that style, and it's the only play I've done that way. I remember `The Ritz' with great affection and I've often wonder why I never wrote another one (farce). I think part of the reason was that it was just so much work. Farces are really fine-tuned. They are like Swiss watches.

"And they are very hard to get going all the exposition. But once they do, all you have to say is, `I'll think I'll go in the next room' and the audience gets hysterical. They know what's in the next room."

The plot of "The Ritz" could not be more ready-made for confusion: Straight garbage collector (Chamberlin) from Cleveland on the run from a Mob relative finds refuge in a gay bathhouse where a determined yet talent-free entertainer named Googie Gomez (Perez) mistakes him for a Broadway producer.

Not many theaters could produce "The Ritz" today making it perfect for the nonprofit Roundabout, according to the playwright.

"It's an ambitious play in terms of its physical size," McNally explains. "A small theater can't do it. There's close to 30 people in it, a lot of people with one or two lines. You can't say it's a bathhouse and only have the principals on stage. Where's everybody else?"

Then there's the large set, designed here by Scott Pask. It's three levels, and has, in keeping with French farce, "a lot of doors," McNally says.

Mantello had always been interested in reviving the play, which had a yearlong run on Broadway in 1975 and won a Tony for Rita Moreno, who originated the role of Googie Gomez. Serious thoughts of resurrecting "The Ritz" first surfaced after Perez went into the Broadway revival of McNally's "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," which Mantello directed in 2003.

"We all loved working with her, and Joe said Rosie was the only one who could do Googie Gomez now," McNally says. "Rosie is from Brooklyn. She is of the streets and of the people."

"They didn't have to twist my arm," Perez says with a laugh. She had read "The Ritz" in high school and then again in college. Plus she had been a fan of Moreno's since watching her on "The Electric Company."

"At first, it was a bit of a struggle for me because Rita Moreno is such an icon," the actress recalls. "I was putting a lot of pressure on myself. When I called her to ask her for her blessing in passing the torch, she said, `You don't need my blessing. Just make Googie your own and make her real.'"

The idea for "The Ritz" grew out of McNally's teaching days when he was a playwright-in-residence at Yale University more than three decades ago.

"I was assigned three or four students and I met with them twice a week, kind of a mentor program," McNally recalls. "At the same time, Bob Brustein (head of the Yale School of Drama) asked me to write a play."

Out of that request came what was then called "The Tubs," slang for the baths. The play had a well-received production at the Yale Repertory Theatre and was picked up by Broadway producer Adela Holzer.

"It got its title changed because at the same time a play came along off-Broadway called `Tubstrip,'" McNally recalls. "Everyone thought it would be confusing. At the time, I was very bummed, but now, in retrospect, I'm glad. `The Ritz' is a better title."

The play, a success with most of the critics, became one of the first plays with unapologetic gay characters to reach a mainstream audience.

"I kept thinking, `It's quite subversive. This play's being done on Broadway and no one is saying anything (against it),'" McNally says. "I think the play is about homophobia, and it celebrates liberation, exactly what Stonewall (the start of the gay rights movement in 1969) was all about.

One of the actors in the original Broadway production was F. Murray Abraham, who appeared as a frequent customer at the Ritz.

"I played a very flamboyant, very `out' homosexual," Abraham recalls. "He was someone who made a lot of noise about being gay in a happy, fun way. But, in fact, he was the sanest person on stage. That was a very important step. I think it's still important for people to understand. If you are gay, then be out. It's much healthier."

And Abraham had no hesitation about playing a gay man.

"Not a chance," he says. "It's a great part. The thing I discovered was how naive I was. Because I'm straight, they said I had to visit gay bars to see what the world was like. ... I had no idea how hot it was. People walking around in towels. All that steam. And there was powerful music happening all the time. It was a very sexy atmosphere."

The setting of "The Ritz," was considered quite exotic in 1975, according to McNally. "But based on rehearsals and a reading we did earlier this year, I think it still works," he says.

"I don't think people go to my plays for their plots. They are not melodramas `Oh, what's going to happen next.' I am more interested in what happens moment to moment between two people. But `The Ritz' is not like that. It has subplots. There are four different stories in `The Ritz.'"

According to Abraham, McNally "writes for actors. His plays are a pleasure to do, but what he says is important, too. And he's like a fountain he keeps on writing and writing and writing."

As Perez puts it, "I have never met a more funny, lighthearted playwright in my life and I've met a lot of them. And you get happy with him. It builds your confidence. That's what makes doing `The Ritz' so much fun."

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Actress Marsha Hunt Still Spry at 90

Marsha Hunt turns 90 on Wednesday, but you'd hardly know it. Her lovely face remains, remarkably, relatively unlined. She's slim and vigorous. And she has total recall of her life in Hollywood, including the infamous blacklist that almost killed her career.

Her 89th year has been a busy one. She was a guest of honor at the Noir Film Festival in San Francisco, where one of her films, "Raw Deal," was shown. And she later acted in a short noir drama filmed nearby. "I got it in one take," she says proudly.

Last spring, the mid-century screen star recited a traditional poem at the Hollywood Bowl's annual Easter sunrise service. She was supposed to read the selection, but because of an eye ailment she memorized all 96 lines, getting through it "without a net to catch me."

She recently produced a CD of pop songs by young Tony London, accompanied by the Page Cavanagh Trio.

And she's the subject of three paper doll collectables dressed in the high-fashion designs she wore on the screen, as well as a coffee-table book, "The Way We Wore," a gallery of her studio fashion photos.

Then there's the fan mail. "It pours in," she says, because of screenings of her movies on cable's AMC, TCM (which is showing a half-dozen of her movies on her birthday) and European television.

Hunt talked volubly during a recent interview at the sprawling San Fernando Valley ranch house where she's lived for more than six decades.

The blacklist is not among Hunt's favorite topics of conversation, but she agreed to discuss that period in Hollywood history, when congressmen hauled actors, writers and directors into hearings to test whether they were communists. Scores of careers were ruined.

At the time, Hunt who had signed petitions promoting liberal ideals and was belonged to the Committee for the First Amendment was doing a lot of work in that new medium called television.

"I was hot," she recalled. "I did the first Shakespeare that was coast to coast on TV. I was on the cover of Life magazine. I did a lot of talk shows, and three networks offered me my own talk show."

Upon returning from vacation in Paris, the offers for her own show were rescinded. She soon found the reason: She had been accused of leftist leanings by Red Channels, a publication that targeted supposed communists.

"I had one phony excuse after another, and I realized that I was now a leper," she said.

She figures she was targeted because she had spoken out at gatherings that opposed the red hunts "but none of them had any whiff of communism."

She had to wait seven years before the offers started again.

"It was never really over," she commented. "They never really acknowledged it because this was strictly illegal. It was restraint of trade, against the law in this country."

She was born Marcia Virginia Hunt in Chicago and reared in New York City, where her father was an insurance executive and her mother a vocal coach and opera singer. She skipped college to attend drama school, modeling as a sideline.

When she was 17 in 1935, she paid her first visit to Hollywood, telling interviewers that she wasn't interested in movies. This, despite she had "dreamed my whole life about being in films." The headline read, "Model Spurns Films." The result: four offers from studios. She chose Paramount Pictures.

After 12 films in two years and another year idle, she was dropped and eventually started making films at MGM as a per diem player.

"MGM was sheer magic," she remarked. "When I arrived at the studio for a one-day role, they parked my car. I went on the set and found a director's chair with a sign on it, `Miss Hunt.' Another sign was on my dressing room. I said to myself, `Any studio that treats a one-day player that way, really knows how to make pictures.' They won my loyalty."

She signed a contract with the studio and soon moved from B movies to A-list films.

Even though MGM boasted "more stars than there are in heaven," Hunt found there was no caste system. She recalled being in a shop at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong, where she had ordered a custom-made dress. It wasn't ready and she was leaving for the U.S. She looked up and saw Clark Gable beside her. She had never met him, but he knew who she was.

"I can pick up your dress and deliver it when I get home," he said. Two weeks later, Gable rang the bell at her house and delivered the dress to her astonished husband. (She was married to director Jerry Hopper from 1938 to '43, then TV/screen writer Robert Presnell Jr. from 1946 until he died in '86.)

Hunt made three films with Greer Garson_ "Pride and Prejudice," "Blossoms in the Dust" and "Valley of Decision," and had one encounter with Greta Garbo.

Garbo thought of cutting the long hair she had worn in every movie. One day Hunt, who wore a short feather cut, got a call to report to the Garbo set where the star inspected her hair and nodded. Garbo wore the cut in "Two-Faced Woman," which happened to be her last movie.

How does Hunt feel about reaching 90?

"I'm so delighted about all of it," she said with enthusiasm. "I've had the fullest 90 years imaginable. I can't think of a year that was wasted. They were so crammed with variety and privilege and opportunity.

"I can't wait for the next 10. Then I'll look and see if it's worth hanging around for."

Roger Moore Receives Hollywood Star

Best known for playing James Bond on the big screen, Roger Moore now has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in front of an address that includes the spy's signature 007.

Moore, 69, received his permanent spot on Hollywood Boulevard on Thursday, accompanied by friends and family.

Moore made seven Bond films, starting with "Live and Let Die" in 1973 and ending 12 years later with "A View to a Kill" The British actor paid homage to the number of women he kissed on-screen while adapting Ian Fleming's leading man.

"Sadly, I had to retire from the Bond films," Moore said. "The girls were getting younger or I was just getting too old."

Moore has done some acting since leaving the Bond franchise. He has raised funds for UNICEF in underdeveloped countries and received a Commander of the British Empire award from the British government in 1999. He also was awarded a knighthood in 2003 for his work with UNICEF.

Moore's star sits in front of 7007 Hollywood Blvd., an ice cream parlor that claims to be the birthplace of the hot fudge sundae.

Pierce Bronsan is the only other actor who played Bond on the big screen to receive a star on the Walk of Fame

'Fat Wedding' Star Filming at Acropolis

ATHENS, Greece Nia Vardalos, star of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," stood under a big reflector on Saturday, filming a new romantic comedy among the dramatic ruins on the Acropolis.

The scene will appear in "My Life in Ruins," also starring Richard Dreyfuss, and follows a decision by Greek authorities to relax their ban on any commercial use of ancient sites.

Authorities vetted the script for historical accuracy and convened a panel of senior archaeologists to give final approval.


"Imagine how I feel being here shooting a movie ... I can't believe things like this can happen to me," Vardalos said late Friday before the Acropolis shoot.

Released in 2002, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was a surprise international hit and earned Vardalos an Oscar writing nomination.

On Saturday, dozens of tourists gathered round a tiny set to take pictures of Vardalos. The 45-year-old Canadian actress plays a tour guide and has already been filmed at Delphi and Ancient Olympia, birthplace of the Olympic games a big deal for a girl brought up Greek.

Director Donald Petrie denied suggestions the script was watered down to secure access to ancient sites, saying restrictions to protect monuments were obvious.

"If the script had had a paintball war in ancient Olympia, I think they would have said no," he said.

"The only major restriction for us is that we treat the sites as they are. We don't bring in fake Roman columns," he said, smiling.

The love interest for the film is Alexis Georgoulis, an actor in a local television series.

"It's a romantic comedy, and we wanted a Greek actor who was experienced but not necessarily well known internationally," Vardalos said. "We found Alexis Georgoulis. He's a great kisser, a great actor and a great guy."

Dreyfuss said he had always wanted to come to Greece and was enjoying his time here.

"This (movie) is about the ever present possibility of love," Dreyfuss said.

"My Life in Ruins" is the first major project helped by the Hellenic Film Commission, recently created by Greece's Culture Ministry to lure international filmmakers to Greece.