Gay life in Chicago this week, back in...
1977
In the March 23, 1977 Chicago Tribune, Lawrence Kart reviews James Kirkwood's play P.S. Your Cat is Dead, under the headline "Homosexuality tamed by a Cat." It's playing at Pheasant Run. He describes the plot:
"Jimmy (Richard Hatch) is a young actor, a Clark Kent-ish straight arrow whose New Year's Eve is turning into a disaster. His cat has died; his girlfriend has dumped him; he has just been fired from a show; and he has been written out of a soap opera that has been his bread and butter. And a burglar who has ripped off his apartment before has sneaked back in for another try and is hiding under the bed.
"The sexual overtones begin when Jimmy stumbles on Vito the thief (Eugene Butler), knocks him out, and trusses him, belly down, over the kitchen sink. Castration is Jimmy's first plan for revenge, but then he decides to reaim [sic] his scissors and merely snip off Vito's pants. A pair of tight scarlet shorts are revealed, and Vito, a street-wise hustler, makes the obvious suggestion. From then on it's a coy ‘will he or won't he' affair, spiced with scatological one-liners and a visit from a group of Jimmy's gay friends who are into sado-masochism."
Kart describes Richard Hatch as "an appropriately pretty young man whose work on All My Children and Streets of San Francisco has won him numerous fans. Acting isn't quite the word for what he does here–he sort of gift-wraps himself and throws the package to the audience."