It's luv for Dom

in 'Luv'

By Wilma Salisbury

Dom DeLuise leaves 'em laughing this week at Packard Music Hall in Warren.

As director and star of Murray Schisgal's absurdist comedy "Luv," the popular funny man clowns, mugs, whimpers, giggles, snickers, slumps, bills and coos. He speaks the unspeakable with his inimitable style of body language, and even manages to throw in a clever ad lib when the opportunity arises.

DeLuise, who plays the suicidal sad sack Harry Berlin, is supported by Bill McCutcheon as his spiffy friend and Joyce Van Patten as their respective spouse. The three work together like men and wife. Schisgal's hilarious twoact play transforms the traditional triangle into a contemporary circle. A man about to end his life is rescued by an old college chum who subsequently jumps off the bridge himself. One person's recital of childhood miseries is topped by another's recounting of still greater indignities suffered and remembered.

A disastrous marriage between two of the three characters is dissolved in favor of an equally disastrous marriage between the other two. A homosexual liaison is also suggested.

The form of the play is not so much a series of role reversals as it is a series of role progressions. Naturally the action ends where it all began: with a little dog who relieves itself on Harry Berlin's pant leg.

DeLuise directs the farce with a fine sense of the ridiculous. He fills the stage with humorous irrelevancies which, given the Freudian overtones of the script, comment beyond what is suggested by the dialog.

As crazy Harry, the frustrated middle-aged bachelor, DeLuise is an endearing oaf, rich in lovable qualities, despite his lack of lovemaking experiences. McCutcheon plays his status-conscious buddy with the flair of a man who wears silk underwear in the daytime and scavenges garbage at night.

Miss Van Patten completes the triumvirate with a credible characterization of an incredible individual who combines the brain of a computer with the instincts of a totally unliberated lady.

The production. the last of the current Kenley season, is presented on a Phillip Louis Rodzen set equipped with knives that pop out of a sand box and water that splashes up under a cardboard bridge.

The show is short. but

DeLuise sees that the audi-

ence gets its money's worth by adding some spontaneous comedy of his own at the end.

On opening night. he fielded questions from the crowd and presided over ceremonies in which Mayor Arthur J. Richards gave a civic award to producer John Kenley and proclaimed Aug. 19-25 John Kenley Week in Warren.