It’s New York in the eighties…a couple of pals, one a restaurant owner, the other a shoe salesman, spend their free time sitting around, sipping whisky and talking about women…it could be cliche…but ‘Lusting After Pepino’s wife’ is far, far from that. The play stuns with wonderfully quirky and clever dialogue, the kind of conversations you can usually only overhear waiting in line somewhere and then later repeat with incredulity as “you couldn’t write this stuff.”
Cast (L-R): Katy Jacoby and Alexis Brandt
Vinnie is a restaurant owner and self-proclaimed guru of love, who’s daily puzzle is why female rejection is so often his companion and Patsy, his friend and yes that is his given name, cluelessly wonders why following Ronnie’s advice never seems to work out for him.
It also follows the angst of Rita and Lorraine, roommates and confidants. Rita is in actually dating Patsy, much to Lorraine’s disdain, and although Rita seems happy, Lorraine continues to undermine her relationship while she careens from one weird sexual encounter to another, all the while hurtling towards mental breakdown…while still being manically hilarious.
‘Lusting After Pepino’s Wife’ is a highly regarded and long running off Broadway. A sunnier Mamet, a wry and rapid take on the distance between the sexes and the panic of feeling alone.
This is a play about relationships, the search for them, the fear of them and ultimately the destruction of them. Vinnie handles rejection like a toddler, Patsy is a romantic trapped in a doofus. Rita is looking for fulfilment through love, which is always a mistake and Lorraine is struggling with her sexual identity…literally all over the place.
Cast (L-R): Danny Cistone & Alexis Brandt
The scenes are short, relentless vignettes of wry one-liners and comical situations in search of life-changing solutions. The dialogue is riddled with the kind of phrases you that seem so familiar because this play has been pinched from a million times…believe me.
The performances are all superb and just about the best I have seen in a very long time in NoHo.
Theatre 68’s new digs give them a bigger and a brighter stage to do what they have always done so well…entertain with heart and humor and more than a little-twisted love for the crazy in all of us.
Oh, and the music is fantastic…I am an eighties girl…so my toes were tapping and my hips were wiggling in my seat…from Michael Jackson to Madonna and Springsteen and beyond…classics that pulled me right back to that time in my life when everyone was looking for love and we all just wanted to have fun…
I highly recommend “Lusting After Pepino’s Wife.’
They have had to extend the run…that's how brilliant this play is…so don’t dawdle, grab your tickets while you can!!
Written by Sam Henry Kass
Produced and Directed by Ronnie Marmo
Assistant Director, Vena Tolomanoska
Set Design by Danny Cistone
Lighting Design by Aaron Craig
The Brilliant Cast
Vinnie - Ronnie Marmo
Patsy - Danny Cistone
Lorraine - Katy Jacoby
Rita - Alexis Brandt