SYLVIA’S REAL GOOD ADVICE
Sylvia’s day wouldn’t be complete without some hanging out at Harry’s Bar, where her canasta-playing love interest, Harry, cheers her up by being even more depressed than she is. Elsewhere Sylvia either ignores, advises, or deflates Rita, her terminally trendy, health-nut daughter; Bill, Rita’s blue-collar boyfriend, a dude in mortal terror of being caught showing his feelings; and Clara, a smug package of ego and attitude who agonizes over her flattering “problems.”
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Just as Sylvia bounces from one character to another, the manic dialogue caroms from one-liner to comeback to zinger to quip. A world without men? “Lots of fat, happy women and no crime.” Sylvia’s retort to her health-conscious daughter: “Rita, your body may be a temple–mine’s a Chevy Vega.” Or take this superb exchange: A woman implores her date, “Frank, make me feel like a woman!” His reply: “Could you pick up my laundry?” Sylvia trenchantly observes, “Ever wonder why people eat in public and have sex in private?” My favorite was a news bulletin: “Congress today outlawed all abortions except those required to save the life of the doctor.”
The sharpest turns come from John Bonny, in crackerjack dual roles as the underachieving Devil and the cosmically innocent Gernif, and Carolynne Warren as the monumentally repressed Beth Anne. Trying desperately to cut loose, her Beth Anne lurches into “Bad,” the evening’s sidesplitting showstopper; Warren’s attempt at a decorous bump and grind is the funniest stuff since Jane Byrne tried to smile.
