This article is about the Broadway production. For the film adaptation see Last of the Red Hot Lovers (film)

Last of the Red Hot Lovers (film)

Neil Simon's Last of the Red Hot Lovers is a 1972 comedy film based on Neil Simon's play of the same name. Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, Paula Prentiss and Renée Taylor star in it...

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Last of the Red Hot Lovers is a play by Neil Simon

Neil Simon

Neil Simon is an American playwright and screenwriter. He has written numerous Broadway plays, including Brighton Beach Memoirs, Biloxi Blues, and The Odd Couple. He won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Lost In Yonkers. He has written the screenplays for several of his plays that...

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At the comedy's core is Barney Cashman, a middle-aged, married nebbish who wants to join the sexual revolution

Sexual revolution

The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...

 before it's too late. A gentle soul with no experience in adultery

Adultery

Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...

, he fails in each of three seductions:

• Elaine Navazio, a sexpot who likes cigarettes, whiskey, and other women's husbands;
• Bobbi Michele, an actress friend who he discovers is madder than a hatter; and
• Jeannette Fisher, his wife's best friend, a staunch moralist.

After six previews, the Broadway production

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

, directed by Robert Moore

Robert Moore (director)

Robert Moore was an American stage, film and television director.-Biography:Born in Detroit, Michigan, Moore is best known for his direction of the ground-breaking play The Boys in the Band, his Broadway productions , and his collaborations - three plays and three films - with Neil Simon,...

, opened on December 28, 1969 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre

Eugene O'Neill Theatre

The Eugene O'Neill Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 230 West 49th Street in midtown-Manhattan.Designed by architect Herbert J. Krapp, it was built for the Shuberts as part of a theatre-hotel complex named for 19th century tragedian Edwin Forrest...

, where it ran for 706 performances. The original cast included James Coco

James Coco

James Coco was an American character actor.- Early life and career :Born James Emil Coco in New York City, son of Feliche Coco, a shoemaker and Ida Detestes Coco, James began acting straight out of high school. As an overweight and prematurely balding adult, he found himself relegated to character...

, Linda Lavin

Linda Lavin

Linda Lavin is an American singer and actress. She is best known for playing the title character in the sitcom Alice and for her Broadway performances.After acting as a child, Lavin joined the Compass Players in the late 1950s...

 (as Elaine), Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts

Doris Roberts is an American character actress of film, stage and television. She has received five Emmy Awards. She began her career in 1952, and may be best-known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005....

 (as Jeannette), and Marcia Rodd

Marcia Rodd

Marcia Rodd is an American actress.Rodd was born in Lyons, Kansas, the daughter of Rosetta and Charles C. Rodd. She studied drama at Northwestern University....

 (as Bobbi). Later in the run, Dom DeLuise

Dom DeLuise

Dominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death and the father of: actor, director, pianist, and writer Peter DeLuise; actor David DeLuise; and actor Michael DeLuise...

 replaced Coco and Cathryn Damon

Cathryn Damon

Cathryn Lee Damon was an American actress, best known for her roles on television sitcoms in the 1970s and 1980s....

 and then Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award....

 replaced Lavin. The play, Coco, Lavin, and Moore all were nominated for Tony Awards.

Simon adapted his play for a 1972 film directed by Gene Saks

Gene Saks

Gene Saks is an American stage and film director.-Life and career:Saks was born in New York City, the son of Beatrix and Morris J. Saks...

. The cast included Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin

Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...

, Sally Kellerman

Sally Kellerman

Sally Clare Kellerman is an American actress and singer known for her role as Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the film MASH , for which she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.-Early life:...

 (as Elaine), Paula Prentiss

Paula Prentiss

Paula Ragusa , better known by her stage name Paula Prentiss, is an American actress well-known for her film roles in Where the Boys Are, Man's Favorite Sport?, The Stepford Wives, What's New Pussycat?, The Black Marble, and The Parallax View and her co-starring role in the television situation...

 (as Bobbi), and Renée Taylor

Renee Taylor

Renée Taylor is an American actress, Academy Award nominated writer and one-time director, best-known for having played Fran Drescher's outspoken mother, Sylvia Fine, on the TV series The Nanny.- Career :...

(as Jeanette).