'Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune' Is a Sparkling Gem

LENOX, Mass. — Talk about strangers in the night. There's lots of social intercourse between Frankie and Johnny. There's also lots of sexual intercourse. 

 

There's grunting and growling and grinding and puffing and huffing and moaning and groaning as Frankie and Johnny make love to the orchestrated orgasmic overture. You could almost smell the sweat. When climaxes are reached, lights go up and Frankie wishes she had a cigarette. (One of her funniest lines.)

 

Welcome to "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," now playing at Shakespeare & Company's Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.

 

Terrence McNally's 1987 romantic comedy is sophisticated, sweet, sentimental and, yes, sexy. Post-coitus, Frankie wonders what she's gotten into. She and Johnny work at the same Manhattan greasy spoon. She's a waitress and failed actress with shattered dreams; he's a short-order cook and Shakespeare devotee with scarred hands.

 

On this Saturday night, they've crossed the line. Dinner, a movie and the move to become lovers in her one-room Hell's Kitchen walk-up. By three in the morning, Frankie is ready for Johnny to go back to his Brooklyn Heights apartment. No way. He declares he has found his soul mate. He suggests marriage and children. She expected a one-night-stand that probably wouldn't last a night. What she now wants is for Johnny to leave so she can watch TV and eat ice cream in peace.

 

What's love got to do with it? Everything

 

Stripped bare, literally and figuratively, Frankie and Johnny expose each other to their fears and frustrations. Nothing is simple or taken for granted. Frankie and Johnny hurl everything at each other; Frankie offers why they do not belong together, Johnny insists why they do. There are other times when she offers him food. She lets him stay. She gets into conversations with him. There are moments where she's genuinely interested in what he has to say. The play is a negotiation into intimacy.