Line #20 Theatre/TheRitz


1	[[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_ritz_1976.jpeg]]
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3	''The Ritz'' is a 1975 play by Terrence [=McNally=]. It's a {{Farce}} in the Creator/GeorgesFeydeau tradition, but with the novelty of being set in New York City not long after the Stonewall Riots.
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5	Gaetano Proclo, a middle-aged Mafioso with a wife and kids, has a hit put out on him by his brother-in-law Carmine Vespucci. Gaetano asks a cab driver to take him to the last place on Earth where anyone would look for a mobster, and the driver drops him off at The Ritz, which Gaetano thinks is a health club, but is actually a large, lavish gay bathhouse.
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7	Once inside, the portly Gaetano fights off the advances of a ChubbyChaser named Claude, then befriends a CampGay frequent Ritz patron named Chris. Meanwhile, Carmine has sent a PrivateInvestigator to the Ritz to track Gaetano down, but instead of the one he hired, the agency dispatches dim-witted, squeaky-voiced Michael Brick out for the job. Then everyone gets mixed up in the antics of Googie Gomez, the (straight) woman who serves as the featured singer in the club's floor show. Googie, who thinks she's destined for Broadway stardom despite minimal talent, mistakes Gaetano for a famous producer.
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9	The original Broadway production ran for over a year, with Creator/RitaMoreno winning a Tony Award as Googie. The 1976 [[TheFilmOfThePlay film adaptation]], directed by Creator/RichardLester and with a screenplay by [=McNally=], features much of the Broadway cast including Moreno, Jack Weston, Creator/JerryStiller, and Creator/FMurrayAbraham.
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11	The play has been revived on Broadway twice, in 1983 and 2007. Creator/RosiePerez played Googie in the 2007 version.
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15	!!This work contains examples of:
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17	* AmbiguousGenderIdentity: Googie is so over the top in her attempts to present herself as TheDiva, that Gaetano and Brick both mistake her for a drag queen. This led to a CastingGag for the 1983 revival, when Googie was played by an actual transgender actress, Holly Woodlawn.
18	* AmbiguouslyBi: The revelation that Claude knew Gaetano in his Army days includes the information that he hit on Gaetano back then, and the two were close enough to perform together in a long-running act where they impersonated Music/TheAndrewsSisters.
19	* AudienceSurrogate: Gaetano if you're straight, Chris if you're gay.
20	* ButNotTooGay: Even a play about gays in a sexually-charged bathhouse environment by an openly gay playwright couldn't get too specific about gay sexuality in TheSeventies.
21	* CampGay: Chris displays all the stereotypical mannerisms of one.
22	* CasanovaWannabe: Chris is a notable early attempt at portraying a gay man this way. He's enthusiastic about his sexuality, but can't interest anyone else, and is reduced to dumb gimmicks like advertising orgies in his room and claiming to be Joe Namath.
23	* CharacterNameAlias: Chris signs in at the front desk as UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan.
24	* ChubbyChaser: Claude is described with this very term, and doesn't object. He also has a fetish for watching his partners engage in gluttony, and arrives at the Ritz well-supplied with food.
25	* DeadpanSnarker:
26	** Abe, the Ritz's desk clerk, who usually makes a sarcastic comment about the incoming patrons when he announces their arrival on the loudspeaker.
27	** Chris gets a lot of the play's laugh lines as one.
28	--->'''Chris''': Strange as it may seem, no one's gonna attack you.
29	--->'''Gaetano''': Someone already has.
30	--->'''Chris''': Beginner's luck!
31	* TheDitz: Brick, who claims that he can't find "a balding, middle-aged fat man" in the club despite Gaetano crossing his path a bunch of times. He also intersects with DumbMuscle and BrainlessBeauty.
32	* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: Gaetano and Claude served in the Army together, though it takes them a while to realize it.
33	* EvilIsOneBigHappyFamily: Zig-Zagged. The Vespucci are a crime family but they all sincerely love and care about each other. However, the rest of the family never accepted Vivian moving to Cleveland to be with her new husband and take it out in poor Gaetano. They hate him so much that Vivian’s brother spends the whole film trying to kill her husband (to honor their fathers dying wish no less) regardless of how Vivian feels about it.
34	* FictionalCounterpart: The Ritz is very obviously based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Baths The Continental Baths]]. The use of a loudspeaker system (ostensibly to warn patrons of police raids) was a particular Continental Baths trademark.
35	* TheFilmOfThePlay: It's very faithful to the original production, with Terrence [=McNally=] doing the screnplay adaptation, and Jack Weston (Gaetano), Creator/JerryStiller (Carmine), Creator/RitaMoreno (Googie), Creator/FMurrayAbraham (Chris), Paul B. Price (Claude), John Everson (Tiger) and Christopher J. Brown (Duff) all reprising their Broadway roles.
36	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Gaetano suffers a bit from GayPanic and has a few moments like this, but since he also has the greater panic of trying to hide from someone who wants to kill him, it's not a major part of the story.
37	* HoneyTrap: Carmine's plan is to have Michael Brick seduce Gaetano, then Carmine will bring in Mrs. Proclo (Carmine's sister) to catch them. That Brick isn't very bright, and with his voice, not very seductive, is only the beginning of the problems Carmine has in executing this scheme.
38	* LovableSexManiac: Chris actually says that people call him a "sex maniac." Claude also fits the type. But Chris isn't very successful in his pursuit of men, and Claude is actually a rather creepy fetishist who's not above committing assault.
39	* TheMafia: The Vespuccis are a big New York crime family. Gaetano married into the family, and they've never liked him, but he's gotten away from their shadow by operating in Cleveland.
40	* MistakenForGay: The main driver of the story, as, once he realizes he's in a gay bathhouse, Gaetano tries to avoid this happening to him.
41	* MistakenIdentity: As a classically-styled {{Farce}}, this is all over the place. Gaetano jokingly signs in as Carmine Vespucci, then everyone calls him by his brother-in-law's name. Michael Brick, never having met Carmine, assumes Gaetano is Carmine. Then Brick also assumes Googie is a drag queen. Meanwhile, Googie, who's been told that a famous producer is in the house as a way to distract her, thinks Gaetano is the producer.
42	* MyBelovedSmother: The Vespucci‘a are so upset that Vivian moved to Cleveland upon marrying her husband that they actually want to kill him.
43	* NoodleIncident: Whatever Chuck did to get disinvited from the Crisco Oil party in room 419, it was nasty enough to make a career criminal like Gaetano flinch when it gets whispered in his ear.
44	* ObnoxiousInLaws: The Vespucci‘s have never liked Gaetano for “taking” Vivian to Cleveland and away from them. It’s so bad that on their wedding day Vivian’s mother had a heart attack and her fathers dying words are for someone to kill him, which their son very much intends to do (kicking off the plot).
45	* PaperThinDisguise: Gaetano shows up at The Ritz in a bad wig, fake mustache and sunglasses.
46	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Carmine constantly calls the Ritz patrons "fruits".
47	* PublicBathhouseScene: Other than a brief prologue, entirely set in a bathhouse, and most of the characters wear only towels through most of the story.
48	* TheReveal: A chance comment by Maurine, the strait-laced accountant, reveals that Carmine Vespucci actually owns the Ritz, then we learn Carmine also owns the cab company, and specifically had the driver bring Gaetano to the Ritz.
49	* SeriousBusiness: Claude seems almost hurt when Gaetano says he hates Music/TheAndrewsSisters.
50	* SirSwearsALot: Googie curses constantly, in both Spanish and English.
51	* SmallNameBigEgo. Googie, combined with HighHopesZeroTalent.
52	-->'''Googie''': Someday, you're gonna see the name of Googie Gomez in lights and you're going to say to yourself "was that her?" And you're gonna answer to yourself, "that was her!" But you know something, mister? I was always her, just nobody knows it!
53	* SpicyLatina: Googie embodies this as much as possible, almost to the point of self-parody.
54	* StopBeingStereotypical: It's implied that a lot of Chris' problems with not being able to hook-up are because the other Ritz patrons think he comes on too strong with his CampGay persona.
55	* StylisticSuck: Googie's singing is meant to be horrible.
56	* TakeOurWordForIt: We never get to see inside the Steam Room, but the comments and reactions by the characters all suggest that there's some heavy-duty decadence happening in there.
57	* ThoseTwoGuys: Tiger and Duff, the Ritz's attendants. The play even specifies that they're supposed to be played by actors who look similar to one another.
58	* VocalDissonance: Young, handsome, muscular Michael Brick has a really high-pitched voice. He claims that his voice never went through puberty.

Context Theatre / TheRitz