Cooking With Gus

Do you like TV comedies a la Lucille Ball? If so, and you don't mind one transposed to the stage (but dealing with a TV show), you're going to toast this marshmallow. Successful published cook Gussie loves and lives with Walter yet puts off marriage while her dream of having a televised cooking show keeps eluding her. When the big opportunity arrives, she faints from camera fright. Walter, who's been studying hypnotism, offers to help Gussie conquer her fears while secretly plumbing her psyche for the reasons she's a workaholic, avoiding marriage and unable to just enjoy life. He's already been practicing his hypnotic prowess on neighbor Carmen, a gypsy and wannabe bartender who brings in sample potables and proceeds to sample too much of them.

Carmen gets way too much into the picture when Gussie's agent, Bernie, videotapes a sample show for TV execs. It's supposed to be initially (which is Bernie's typical mode of expression) "OTB" of a new Gussie hit, but it's soon "Only The Beginning" of Walter's plan to wed her and woo her off to a safari. The show within this show is the piece de resistance in which Gussie and Carmen become sloshed, ending in a food fight.

Ann Morrison, Sarasota's own "Lucy," beguiles as Gussie, nicely matched by Ethel-like but more thundery Carolyn Zaput as Carmen. No costumer is credited on the program, but whoever chose Gussie's showtime flowing Oriental robe and Carmen's animal print caftan over animal skin trousers deserves mention. Stephen Ivester seems as cuddly as Walter's collection of stuffed animals and makes him lovable despite his hypnotic duplicity. Charlie Schwartz covers himself with honors by covering himself with dough, the equivalent of slapstick pie-in-the-face. He's also VG at delivering letters. For a dessert of a show, tune in.