Robert Tanitch reviews Two for the Seesaw at Trafalgar Studios, London SW1
There are just two characters in William Gibson’s Two for the Seesaw and more often than not they are on the phone.
The roles were created in 1958 by Henry Fonda and Anne Bancroft in New York and by Peter Finch and Gerry Jedd in London. The play was much more successful on Broadway than it was in the West End.
Charles Dorfman and Elsie Bennett in Two for the Seesaw
There was also a film in 1962 with Robert Mitchum and Shirley MacLaine. It might have fared better at the box-office if, as was intended, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor had been playing the leads.
Two lonely people in New York need somebody to love. He is a would-be lawyer from Nebraska, still taking his exams, and she is a would-be dancer from the Bronx. They have an affair but, unfortunately for her, he still loves the woman he is trying to divorce.
William Gibson (1914-2008), who is probably known better for The Miracle Worker, his play about the deaf and blind Helen Keller’s traumatic childhood, describes Two for the Seesaw as a comedy, but there is a singular lack of wit.
The characters are only as interesting as the actors who act them and the only way the comedy and drama could work in the West End today would be to have two big stars.
The reason the play is being revived is presumably because Charles Dorfman (artistic director of the company presenting the play) wants to act the lawyer. The dancer is the better role.
Dorfman and Elsie Bennett have neither the charisma nor the chemistry.
Incidentally, there was a musical version on Broadway in 1973 called Seesaw. It had music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It was directed by Michael Bennett, who won a Tony for his choreography. Tommy Tune won a Tony for his dancing. It got good notices but the producers did not have enough money to pay for advertisements to keep it going.
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