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The Ritz (play)
Encyclopedia
The Ritz is a play by Terrence McNally
. Actress Rita Moreno
won a Tony Award
for her performance as Googie Gomez in the 1975 Broadway production, which she and many others of the original cast reprised in a 1976 film version
directed by Richard Lester
.
The farce
is set in a gay bathhouse
in Manhattan
, where unsuspecting heterosexual Cleveland businessman Gaetano Proclo has taken refuge from his homicidal
mobster brother-in-law, Carmine Vespucci. There Gaetano stumbles across an assortment of oddball characters, including a rabid chubby chaser, go-go boys
, a squeaky-voiced detective
, and Googie Gomez, a third-rate Puerto Rican
entertainer with visions of Broadway
glory who mistakes him for a famous producer and whom he mistakes for a man in drag
. Further complications arise when Gaetano's wife Vivian tracks him down and jumps to all the wrong conclusions about his sexual preferences.
, opened on January 20, 1975 at the Longacre Theatre
, where it ran for 398 performances. The cast included Jack Weston, Rita Moreno
, Jerry Stiller
, F. Murray Abraham
, Stephen Collins
, and George Dzundza
.
Moreno won the Tony
and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award
for her performance, and the play received a Drama Desk nomination as Outstanding New American Play.
. Also in the cast were Kaye Ballard
and Treat Williams
. The film, Weston, and Moreno all received Golden Globe nominations in the comedy category.
, on May 2, 1983.
A new limited-run Broadway revival produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company
and directed by Joe Mantello
began previews on September 15, 2007 at Studio 54
and officially opening October 11. The cast included Rosie Perez
as Googie Gomez, Kevin Chamberlin
as Gaetano Proclo, as well as Seth Rudetsky
and Ryan Idol
as bathhouse patrons. The production closed on December 9, 2007.
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been a member of the Council of the...
. Actress 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....
won a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
for her performance as Googie Gomez in the 1975 Broadway production, which she and many others of the original cast reprised in a 1976 film version
The Ritz (film)
The Ritz is a 1976 film directed by Richard Lester based on the play of the same name by Terrence McNally.Actress Rita Moreno who had won a Tony Award for her performance as Googie Gomez in the 1975 Broadway production, and many others of the original cast like Jack Weston, Jerry Stiller, and F...
directed by Richard Lester
Richard Lester
Richard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
.
Plot
The farceFarce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
is set in a gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouse
Gay bathhouses, also known as gay saunas or steam baths, are commercial bathhouses for men to have sex with other men. In gay slang in some regions these venues are also known colloquially as "the baths" or "the tubs," and should not be confused with public bathing.Not all men who visit gay...
in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, where unsuspecting heterosexual Cleveland businessman Gaetano Proclo has taken refuge from his homicidal
Homicidal
Homicidal is a 1961 thriller film produced and directed by the self-proclaimed "King of Showmanship", William Castle. Written by Robb White, the film stars Glenn Corbett, Patricia Breslin, Eugenie Leontovich, Alan Bunce, Richard Rust, and Joan Marshall...
mobster brother-in-law, Carmine Vespucci. There Gaetano stumbles across an assortment of oddball characters, including a rabid chubby chaser, go-go boys
Go-Go dancing
Go-go dancers are dancers who are employed to entertain crowds at a discotheque. Go-go dancing originated in the early 1960s when women at the Peppermint Lounge in New York City began to get up on tables and dance the twist...
, a squeaky-voiced detective
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
, and Googie Gomez, a third-rate Puerto Rican
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
entertainer with visions of Broadway
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...
glory who mistakes him for a famous producer and whom he mistakes for a man in drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
. Further complications arise when Gaetano's wife Vivian tracks him down and jumps to all the wrong conclusions about his sexual preferences.
1975 Broadway production
After ten previews, the Broadway production, directed by Robert DrivasRobert Drivas
Robert Drivas was an American actor and theatre director.Drivas was born Robert Choromokos in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Hariklia and James Peter Choromokos. Drivas studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Miami...
, opened on January 20, 1975 at the Longacre Theatre
Longacre Theatre
The Longacre Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 220 West 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.-Theatre History:Designed by architect Henry Beaumont Herts in 1912, it was named for Longacre Square, the original name for Times Square...
, where it ran for 398 performances. The cast included Jack Weston, 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....
, Jerry Stiller
Jerry Stiller
Gerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...
, F. Murray Abraham
F. Murray Abraham
Fahrid Murray Abraham is an American actor. He became known during the 1980s after winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Antonio Salieri in Amadeus. He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men and Scarface...
, Stephen Collins
Stephen Collins
Stephen Weaver Collins is an American actor, writer, and singer. He is perhaps best known for playing the role of Eric Camden on the long running television series 7th Heaven and more recently as Dr. Dayton King on the ABC TV series No Ordinary Family.-Early life:Collins was born in Des Moines,...
, and George Dzundza
George Dzundza
George Dzundza is an American television and film actor.-Personal life:Dzundza was born in Rosenheim, Germany, to a Ukrainian father and Polish mother who were forced into factory labour by the Nazis. He spent the first few years of his life in displaced persons camps with his parents and one...
.
Moreno won the Tony
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award
Drama Desk Award
The Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for her performance, and the play received a Drama Desk nomination as Outstanding New American Play.
1976 film version
Weston, Moreno, Stiller, and Abraham all reprised their stage roles in the 1976 film version directed by Richard LesterRichard Lester
Richard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
. Also in the cast were Kaye Ballard
Kaye Ballard
Kaye Ballard is an American musical theatre and television actress, comedienne, and singer.-Life and career:Ballard was born as Catherine Gloria Balotta in Cleveland, Ohio, to an Italian American family, the daughter of Lena and Vincent James Balotta.Ballard established herself as a musical...
and Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
. The film, Weston, and Moreno all received Golden Globe nominations in the comedy category.
Revivals: 1983, 2007
The first Broadway revival of The Ritz previewed for two weeks but then closed after a single regular performance at Xenon, formerly Henry Miller's TheatreHenry Miller's Theatre
The Stephen Sondheim Theatre, formerly Henry Miller's Theatre, is a Broadway theatre located at 124 West 43rd Street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue, in Manhattan's Theatre District.-History:...
, on May 2, 1983.
A new limited-run Broadway revival produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
and directed by Joe Mantello
Joe Mantello
Joseph Mantello is an American actor and director best known for his work on Broadway productions of Wicked, Take Me Out and Assassins, as well as earlier in his career being one of the original Broadway cast of Angels in America...
began previews on September 15, 2007 at Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
and officially opening October 11. The cast included Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
as Googie Gomez, Kevin Chamberlin
Kevin Chamberlin
- Life :Chamberlin was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in Moorestown Township, New Jersey, moving there as a nine-year old. Chamberlin graduated from Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting.- Career :...
as Gaetano Proclo, as well as Seth Rudetsky
Seth Rudetsky
Seth Rudetsky is an American musician, actor, writer, and radio host. He currently is the host of "Seth's Big Fat Broadway" on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio's...
and Ryan Idol
Ryan Idol
Ryan Idol is an American actor who performed in gay pornographic movies in the 1990s. He has French, Irish, and Native-American ancestry. Idol describes himself as "the creation of Marc Anthony Donais."-Biography:...
as bathhouse patrons. The production closed on December 9, 2007.
External links
- Internet Broadway Database listing, all productions
- The Ritz play and movie at bathhouseaddict.com.