'Ritz' is bathed in top comedy

By Peter Bellamy

Staff Writer

Let

NEW YORK there be not the slightest doubt as to Broadway's comedy smash hit of the year.

It's the rock 'em and sock 'em rowdy farce, "The Ritz." Two of its stars are Jack Weston, a distinguished alumnus of the Play House, and Rita Moreno, who won a Tony Award for her hilarious performance in it.

It is sheer froth and entertainment without a serious thought, and this lunatic romp has its audiences in almost continuous laughter.

Its unending series of mistaken identities, masquerades, chases all over the state and the fourlevel set åre a marvel of blocking. Feydeau, the master of French farce, never had more doors slamming or more people hiding under beds at one time.

There is almost unceasing slapstick and darting in and out of bedrooms. Much sexual hanky-panky

off-stage is indicated, but

never seen on-stage. The show is funny, not offen-

sive.

"The Ritz," which is named for a fictitious gay Turkish bath in New York City, was written by Terrence McNally. It began as "The Tubs" at Yale University. It was obviously inspired in part by the rise of singer Bette Midler from a Manhattan Turkish bath.

The tenuous story concerns a Cleveland refuse company executive, played by Weston, who takes refuge in “The Ritz” after his gangster brotherin-law has let a contract on his life.

The homosexual characters include cruisers, queens, female impersonators, transvestites, a "chubby chaser" and two fey characters with diamond-studded teeth. For the most part it is a highly amusing if terribly vulnerable group.

The featured entertainer of the bath house is a hard-as-nails Puerto Rican girl, played by Miss Moreno, prepared to do anything to become a star.

Confusion mounts as Weston thinks that Miss Moreno is a transvestite and she thinks he is producer Joseph Papp, her key to stardom.

Her mastery of fractured English with a Latin accent is the funniest since the late Carmen Miranda. Since she is a sizzling sex symbol and dancer of provocative physical appeal, it is absurd for anyone to imagine she is a transvestite.

Weston, like Buddy Hackett and Zero Mostel, is a great practitioner of the slow burn and double take and projector of ludicrous confusion and puzzlement.

Paul B. Price hams it right up to the point of overacting as the "chubbychasing" one who pelts Weston with chocolate bars over a transom.

George Dzundza portrays the role of the Turkish bath's desk clerk with understanding philosophical resignation.

Director Robert Drivas has given the production the blazing pace so necessary to successful farce, and has also treated the gay life and the Mafia without annoying either.

John Everson, another Play House alumnus, has a featured role in the show, but is was played by Larry Gilman in the performance I saw.