Viagra Falls is one of those old school sitcom-style stage comedies that I usually view with a good deal more cynicism—these days they tend to be vanity projects or shows geared toward stock-and-amateur productions in the boonies, but mounting a NY run to have a “hit engagement” as a selling point—but there’s an unusual sweetness at the core of this one that keeps me from putting it in quite the same box as the others. To be sure, this tale of two 70-plus duffers looking toward one last fling with a hooker who specializes in old guys has that quaint, corny TV thing about it—like a very attenuated and overwritten segment of Love, American Style—so I don’t mean to imply for a minute that it’s some kind of unexpected sleeper that’ll take you by surprise; but because it’s a showcase for old-timers—who don’t get a lot of showcases—picking on it for being silly and trivial seems like kicking an old, sweet dog who comes to you looking to be petted.
Author
Lou Cuttell wrote the play based on what was apparently an undeveloped draft of
a previously unproduced play by Brazilian writer Joao Machado who offered it to Cuttell as a vehicle. Machado
gets co-author credit and Cuttell co-stars, so I guess the arrangement is
agreeable. Cuttell, a wrinkled, bald, gnome of a guy (and a longtime character
man you'll probably recognize) has as his costars the taller, vaguely nattier,
unbald Bernie Kopell (remember
Siegfried in Get Smart and the doctor on The Love Boat?) and the surprisingly tall, surprisingly bosomy
and—proving that age is only a
state of mind where some things are concerned—surprisingly sexy
Teresa Ganzel. (Of the three,
she’s also the most adept at stage comedy. The two gentlemen, though seasoned
old pros, have been in front of the camera perhaps too long, and don’t have as
clean a technique.) I give the play some extra credit for being set in
Sunnyside Queens (my ‘hood) and subtract a point or two for the direction by Don
Chrichton, which is decent enough to do no
harm, but leans toward playing for the laugh more than playing for real stakes
(which would make it funnier).
Ah,
well…this is "package" theatre, Hollywood style. And just like a
prescription for those little blue pills, it's clearly enough labeled
for any who would care to partake…