Subject: Second-Generation AIDS Play Fails To Amuse
Date: Published: 2/14/92 (37 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    LEISURE & ARTS -- Theater:
    An Artist's Inspiration Lost
    ----
    By Melanie Kirkpatrick

    Paula Vogel's "The Baltimore Waltz," at the Circle Rep,
 has been billed as a "second-generation AIDS play."  I've
 puzzled over that designation and concluded that perhaps it's
 a comment on the play's attempts to be humorous, something
 few "first-generation" plays about AIDS dared to try.
 Unfortunately, it largely fails as comedy.  Instead, it's a
 series of mostly witless vignettes about a brother and
 sister's madcap imaginary tour of Europe.  The only bright
 light is the elastic-faced Joe Mantello, who plays the stream
 of European waiters and bellboys the sister seduces.
    Another difference between "The Baltimore Waltz" and other
 AIDS plays is that the focus is not on the victim, but on the
 victim's sister (Cherry Jones), who, upon learning that her
 brother is dying of AIDS, fantasizes that she has "ATD,"
 Acquired Toilet Disease.  In what is presumably intended as an
 ironic comment on the invective hurled at some AIDS
 sufferers, her deadly disease afflicts only unmarried
 elementary school teachers, who catch it from toilet seats.
 To my mind, this metaphor is not only unamusing, it's also an
 insult to our intelligence, since it equates behavior such as
 using a restroom in a bus station with the behavior that can
 put one at risk of AIDS.  "The Baltimore Waltz" will be
 inflicted on theatergoers in Houston, Albany, N. Y., and
 Baltimore, where productions are already planned.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the
 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
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