Overview
Set on the stage of a New York theatre in the 1930s, this demented, madcap, no holds barred, galloping farce is a loving parody and homage to the sort of movie the Marx Brothers might have made after a hundred cups of coffee with their hair on fire. The language is rapid fire and the physical comedy is maniacal. Mrs. Lillian Quackenfurter, a once renowned actress, has written the worst play in the history of the theatre, Lady Furtwinger's Lover, which she hopes to star in to revive her career after a forty year hiatus, and has hired a person she believes to be the internationally renowned director, Dr Cornelius T. Fartwhistle, a rude, fast-talking con man who insults her constantly and makes hash of her play. He's actually a dentist named Hassenfusser who accidentally killed Fartwhistle with laughing gas while filling a cavity. The stage manager, Boccalucci, and his wild, girl-chasing, mute assistant, Goosey, who have worked with the real Fartwhistle in the past (and slept with his wife) blackmail Fartwhistle-Hassenfusser into letting them appear in the play, planning to disable the other actors by feeding them bad fish and putting vodka in the water cooler. Lucy the maid is determined to get through her exposition, despite the fact that she's forced to talk into a goose instead of a telephone, and is being constantly bombarded by bird carcasses. Edgar is insanely jealous over his blond bombshell wife Thelma, who is unconscious for much of the second act. Dick, the leading man, plays tennis and announces that he has three balls. Somebody has put tranquilizer darts in the prop gun. Non-stop lunacy.