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The "Cactus Flower" Is Always in Bloom

The bright reds and pinks of Valentine's Day have been popping at retailers since before we put away our glitzy Christmas trappings. But with February 14 now in the calendar crosshairs, Curtain Players, too, is selling a little love and romance in accordance with the holiday celebration.

So we ask you, "Will you be mine?"

CACTUS FLOWER is in bloom on the Harlem Road playhouse stage February 18 through March 6 and, it seems, you cannot keep a good plot down. CACTUS FLOWER is the story of a middle-aged commitment-phobic dentist who, hoping to maintain the relationship's status quo, tells his much-younger girlfriend that he is married. The young girlfriend, an open free spirit, demands to meet the fictional wife, forcing the dentist to convince his spinsterish assistant to pose as his spouse, leading to a comedic series of complications.

The smart Abe Burrows comedy (featuring Barry Nelson, Lauren Bacall and Brenda Vaccaro) was a Broadway sensation in 1965 and charted more than 1,200 performances. Hollywood took notice of the property and brought forth a major motion picture introducing audiences to Goldie Hawn, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the role of the girlfriend. She was in good company on set: Walter Matthau played the dentist; Ingrid Bergman, the assistant.

CACTUS FLOWER became a touring, summer stock, dinner, and community theatre staple and it provided a plotline for countless sitcom episodes, but, in the last 20 years or so, not much mention has been made of the title. The Curtain Players reading committee last season, however, thought enough of this chestnut and believed Curtain audiences would enjoy this romantic comedy, no matter how prickly and tickly a path this tale romance takes.

We apparently are not the only ones who think so.

In recent weeks, an off-Broadway revival of CACTUS FLOWER has been announced for a March opening in New York. Maxwell Caulfied (TV's DYNASTY II: THE COLBYS and the film GREASE 2) is playing the dentist this time.

And coming soon to a theatre near you, the Adam Sandler-Jennifer Aniston movie JUST GO WITH IT has Sandler as a plastic surgeon who, to woo women, pretends to be unhappily married. When the girl of his dreams discovers his prop wedding ring, the good doctor – afraid of revealing to her his less than honorable manner of courting – ropes his office manager (Aniston) into a scheme where she poses as the soon-to-be ex.

And even India mines laughs from this situation. The 2005 Bollywood take on the tale, MAINE PYARR KYUN KIYA? (translated WHY DID I FALL IN LOVE?), is about the relationships of a womanizing doctor stuck between two women: a patient with suicidal tendencies and his dutiful nurse who has been resistant to his charms.

This blooming CACTUS FLOWER is like a dandelion, but a good story is a good story. As final evidence of this point, playwright Abe Burrows based his script on that of a popular French farce, FLEUR DE CACTUS.

So maybe this Valentine's Day, the rose is not the blossom of choice as a symbol of affection. Rather, sharing a CACTUS FLOWER is the way to really show one's love. Why not make a date? Tickets are on sale at www.curtainplayers.com. See you at the playhouse!