Comments on Marty Nemko: "The Sexiest Man Alive:" An outline for a play on...

A movie star with low sex drive doesn't sound like...

2009-10-27T20:45:42.036-07:00

A movie star with low sex drive doesn't sound like an interesting foundation to me. What's entertaining about that?

I don't think many people will identify or sympathize with the hero. Those guys who do, won't admit to it. :)

Of course, if you can make it hilarious, the rather limp (heh) starting point could be forgiven.

Marty, your comments and a third reading point to ...

2009-10-15T15:36:26.188-07:00

Marty, your comments and a third reading point to your attention to some of the details I questioned and suggest that a fuller treatment could have the complexity I would look for. Thanks. Now I get to examine my own cynicism about whether others would root for or find the protagonist sympathetic. I did not intend for my earlier remarks to indicate that I found the ending 'happy' at all. Like many things that others accept with surprising ease, I found it soul destroying. I look forward to seeing/reading where you go with the project. A friend/mentor has challenged me to explore a poem I wrote (about recently having to take away my father's car) into a short play. The stage is a demanding mistress....but probably more likable than than Susan.

Dear AllEars, The play's theme IS that he turns h...

2009-10-15T12:15:57.925-07:00

Dear AllEars,

The play's theme IS that he turns himself inside out to have sex despite his low sex drive BECAUSE he wants to please her AND it is the societal norm. And the ending is far from happy--It makes clear that even when he succeeds, he's not happy--When they're making love, she's in ecstasy, he looks like he's fulfilling an obligation.

Regarding his disinterest being her specifically, at age 35 and someone who has wanted to stay a virgin, and a leading-man movie star, he's had plenty of opportunitites to have sex yet never felt compelled to have sex. I have added a line to make his previous opportunities more apparent. Thank you for pointing to my need to do that.

And with regard to religion, I have made efforts to leave ambiguous the extent to which his problem is his fundamentalist father, his poor circulation, the pressure today's women impose, something else, or some combination thereof.

Marty, neither the theme nor the outline work for ...

2009-10-15T11:44:55.649-07:00

Marty, neither the theme nor the outline work for me because they (even with the 'happy' ending) reinforce some attitudes I do not encourage or find interesting to validate. The treatment, as is, makes sex sound too important, an idea that reflects cultural norms but is not interesting, edgy, or useful. The implication is that a hot,attractive, willing. desirous, experienced woman should solve the problem (and there must be something wrong with a man who does not feel or respond accordingly). Perhaps even the sexiest man alive is not sexual? Perhaps something about the scent of a particular woman carries more impact than her apparent physical beauty? I think for such a play to succeed creatively, it may need to be more complex than would invite audience approval. And be careful not to allow the audience to draw too simple a conclusion that a Christian or any other fundamentalist background is at the root of sexual confusion, stress or ambivalence.