Terrence McNally wrote the screenplay for Frankie and Johnny (1991), drawing it from his 1987 off-Broadway production, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. With the help of director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman), McNally transformed a two-actor set piece into cinema. Frankie and Johnny merits mention with the great New York films in its respect for the many differences from which the city is composed and its eye for the gritty appearance of pre-Giuliani Manhattan.
Some things haven’t changed: Frankie and Johnny overhear the racial tension, and there’s a sharp joke about immigration near the beginning. The New York panorama encircles the story’s titular couple and their ongoing conversation with its themes of loneliness, sex, romance, friendship, aging, the boundaries between people and the ways we can or cannot cross them. Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer) is hesitant to be hurt again. Her aspiration?: buy a VCR, order pizza and spend her nights at home with favorite movies. Johnny (Al Paccino) is in hot pursuit of her and eager to take a chance on love.
The movie retains key elements of the play while differing considerably from McNally’s original conception. For the film, McNally weaved a backstory for the characters and focused on the difficulty of getting the two together. Many scenes set in the Apollo Café, where the couple works (and meets). The play unfolds in a single room. The character of Frankie was created for Kathy Bates but Hollywood dictated an actress with greater box–office draw as well as conventional beauty. The movie strongly implies a happy ending for the couple. The play seems less certain.
I will be discussing film culture, Frankie and Johnny and Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Samantha Martinson, 6:30 p.m., Sept. 27 at the Broadway Theatre Center’s bar. The event is in conjunction with Chamber Theater’s production of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.
