The Steamy: The Ritz
We still mourn the loss of Terrence McNally, the great queer playwright who gave us Love! Valor! Compassion!, Ragtime and Kiss of the Spider Woman: The Musical. Unfortunately, though he penned dozens of acclaimed stage shows, only a handful have ever made it before the cameras.
With that in mind, today we suggest one of his film adaptations that mixes farce with gayness. The Ritz takes loose inspiration from the Continental Baths, the New York gay steam-o-Rama that helped performers like Bette Midler launch their careers. In this fictionalized version, the great Rita Moreno plays an aspiring singer named Googie with her sights set on Broadway glory. When a mobster (Jack Weston) decides to hide out in the baths, Googie and her fan club of wacky queers give him an experience he won’t forget anytime soon. Oscar-winner F. Murray Abraham, Treat Williams, Kaye Ballard and the late Jerry Stiller also star.
Abraham, Weston, Stiller and Moreno all reprise their performances from the original Broadway production, for which Moreno picked up a Tony Award. This kind of screwball farce is notoriously difficult to pull off on film (see also: movie versions of Noises Off and Beyond Therapy), but the game efforts of the cast and McNally’s sensitive writing make this one work at times it shouldn’t. Moreover, it offers a glimpse into the mythic world of gay bathhouse culture in the 1970s–something an increasingly few of us got to experience. Moreno also gives one of her best performances as the manic Googie, which makes this bygone bust-up fun enough for us.
Streams on Amazon, iTunes, VUDU and YouTube.
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ThomasandJerome
This movie is so fun.
ZUMMY
“I had a drim! A drim about ch’you, beb-eeeee!”
Dashing Partycrasher
Take away my Gay Card, but I’d never heard of “The Ritz” til now. And Rita Moreno looks so young in it! Also take away my backup Gay Card, because I sometimes confused her with the great Chita Rivera — both are trailblazing, amazing Puerto Rican dancers and singers who are nearly the same age (Rita is now 88 and Chita is 87.) I was lucky to see Chita sing and dance live on stage 15 years ago, in the pre-Broadway premiere of “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life” based on the book by Terrence McNally. Would love to see Rita perform live, too — or better yet, both of them together!
Dunnedin
I saw it when it came out (in the very closted 70s in Texas) and was blown away (no pun intended) to see gays having fun as opposed to hating themselves (that’s you, Boys in the Band). Don’t expect heavy social commentary, just impossible situations.
Woteva
I watched this again on DVD just last week and ‘borrowed’ Googie Gomez’s sublime performance of ‘Everything’s Coming Up Roses’ (I edited it and posted it to Whatsapp) for friends to watch under the heading ‘Once the nasty virus is gone we’ll all be singing this…’
Treat Williams was very cute in this way ahead of it’s time over the top, low budget comedy which was made in Britain.
Elysium
Probably THE funniest gay-thematic film ever! I translated it for the theatre circuit when it was released (I know, I’m aging myself…) – in Portugal we subtitle ALL the films we see in movie theatres, Heavens be praised! – and have given the DVD to several friends, who all laugh hysterically at the jokes and situations. And of course, Rita Moreno is a joy to behold.