I first saw this TV adaptation of Bruce Jay Friedman's offbeat off- Broadway play on PBS Channel 28 in 1973 and remember being impressed that TV was actually showing something new and ground-breaking. Telecast at the height of the anti-establishment, post-hippie era, Steambath was still pretty steamy even for its day! I also remember when it was rebroadcast some months later it was about fifteen minutes shorter with some of the raw language and skin missing. So instead of ushuring in a new era of daring and innovative televison, I can look back at that first broadcast as the end of that very short bold era. One never saw anything like this on television again until the advent of cable 20 years later. Alas, this DVD version comes from the second telecast, not the first.
Nevertheless, the play, authored by Bruce Jay Friedman (Splash, The Lonely Guy), is a bizzare and thought-provoking tale with a cast of actors at the height of their talent. Bill Bixby plays Tandy, a frustrated author (struggling with a historical novel about Charlemagne) whose quest to figure out the where and why of the situation is the focus of the play. He is well supported by a gruff crumudeon (Stephen Elliott), a fitmess-obsessed stockbroker (Kenneth Mars), a slob obsessesed with "the good old days" (Herb Edelman), two "fags" (their self-description) who always speak in unison, and a demure bombshell (Valarie Perrine) who has recently experience her first orgasm. Perrine's on-camera nude shower scene has become somewhat legendary over the years, but it essentially a rear-view shot with a flash of breast -- no big deal today, as you can see more on NYPD any Tuesday night.
Everyone gives a solid performance and Bixby's easy charm makes his self-centered character sympathetic. The group interacts with some very whitty dialog, continuing to obsess about the same petty concerns that obsessed them before they entered the steambath. The two gay men stripping to the song, "Let Me Entertain You," is especially hilarious.
They are soon joined by an attendant, a small Puerto Rican man (José Pérez) who occupies himself by cleaning the benches, picking up used towels, and speaking creative death scenarios into a beeping machine. As the story unfolds we learn his real identity -God- and the purpose of the steambath: the visitors have all died and the room is a way-station on their journey to an unknown afterlife that exists beyond an unmarked side door.
Bixby at first refuses to believe what has happened, and he absolutely refuses to believe that this little guy is the majestic and powerful God he always envisioned. One by one the others accept their fate and go through the door, except for Bixby who bargains and pleads to be allowed to return to his life for another chance. The poignant ending leaves you with the impression that God knows what he is doing after all.
Both the VHS and DVD versions carry no bonus features except for some trailers ahead of the main menu for other Broadway plays, a real disappointment.
