Madcap hilarity at ‘The Ritz’

THE RITZ
Written by Terrence McNally
Directed by Joe Mantello
Studio 54
254 West 54th Street
(212-719-1300; roundabouttheatre.org)

By Scott Harrah

There is much to love about this revival of Terrence McNally’s 1975 farce about a portly garbage man, Gaetono Proclo (played with conviction by Kevin Chamberlin), hiding from his mobster brother-in-law in a gay bathhouse. Although much of the comedy appears dated, the screwball humor of this period piece is still funny more than three decades later. Mobsters in the 21st century are more of the suburban “Sopranos” variety than urban thugs, and online dating sites have replaced the gay bathhouse scene, but the stereotypical material McNally mines for laughs still holds up. “The Ritz” is a comedy that was written back in the pre-AIDS era, the days before political correctness, when no one considered one-dimensional portrayals of Italian-Americans, Hispanics or gays to be particularly offensive.

Proclo is in fear of being killed and needs to hide from mobster Carmine Vespucci, played with comic verve by Lenny Venito. He seeks refuge at The Ritz, a place he thinks is just a Turkish bath but is really a gay bathhouse. When Proclo learns what type of establishment The Ritz really is, he is forced into pretending to be a big-time Broadway producer, much to the delight of tacky singer Googie Gomez (Rosie Perez), a woman who performs an awful, so-bad-it’s-good song and dance routine there regularly. Proclo, while trying to maintain the ruse of being a producer, is also fighting off the affections of a “chubby chaser,” Claude Perkins (Patrick Kerr), giving the show a nonstop sense of madcap comic mayhem.

Audiences too young to have seen the Broadway original may have caught the 1976 movie adaptation, which starred Rita Moreno as the Latina spitfire Googie Gomez, a campy entertainer of questionable talent whom McNally obviously modeled after Bette Midler and her infamous cabaret act at the Continental Baths. Rosie Perez’s interpretation of Googie is ambitious, but it is often difficult to figure out just what she is saying as she shrieks out lines of dialogue in her almost cartoonish accent. Still, it’s a lot of fun seeing Perez’s Googie butchering show-tune standards such as Kander and Ebb’s “Maybe This Time.” It would be unjust to say that Perez doesn’t fill Googie’s stiletto heels the way the great Rita Moreno did, as Perez is certainly more like Charo than a second-rate Bette Midler, but perhaps that was McNally’s intent all along. Perez’s “shtick” has always been playing kooky ladies that talk too fast — she’s been doing it ever since 1992’s “White Men Can’t Jump” — and sometimes audiences will wish that she would slow Googie down a bit so we can actually laugh at McNally’s potent dialogue.

Brooks Ashmanskas is always first rate as the lovable queen Chris. Ashamanskas, who earned a Tony nomination for last year’s “Martin Short: Fame Becomes Me” — a hilarious show that received mixed reviews — is ebullient and over the top in virtually every scene, sashaying his way across the stage in a hideous caftan that looks like something stolen from Mrs. Roper’s closet on “Three’s Company.”

The high-tech set is probably far more elegant, clean and well lit than any Manhattan bathhouse ever was back in the 1970s, but it provides a zany backdrop for all the on-stage madness. In fact, one of the greatest things about this revival is its on-target depiction of the 1970s and all the bad hairdos and fashions, as well as the sexual pop culture of that era. It also includes a very funny appearance by former real-life porn star Ryan Idol playing “Crisco Patron.” (Don’t ask — you’ll just have to see the show.)

There really isn’t much depth to “The Ritz,” but it never tries to be anything more than a fun, fluffy sex comedy about characters — many of them clad only in towels — caught in the unlikeliest of places, in completely ridiculous situations.