Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

stfrsc I was amazed by this production when it originally aired on Los Angeles PBS affiliate KCET in 1972, and for years afterward as they would drag it out at fund raising time. Then it disappeared down a black hole! The reason IMO is the portrayal of the unison-speaking gay guys, with perhaps some Perrine nipples mixed in. In this oh so politically correct era we can't have any of that, now can we? Steambath retains its relevance in that it highlights how much less freedom of expression we enjoy today compared to the early 1970s.

livingevernow Seeing this "play" on PBS when first aired, I was left with questions ranging from character development, story location, interpersonal exchanges, etc. After (fortunately) viewing this masterpiece on several occasions I decided "Steambath" & my questions have individual answers to everyone. So, "What is Life?" and After remains a question with an infinite number of solutions; each your own. "Steambath" was & remains in my top most influential "plays/movies" ever! On par with this "10" is Dalton Trumbo's "Johnny Got His Gun"(~1969 movie) which describes the individual horror of War (WWI) from the perspective of a soldier - quadriplegic who also has lost sight & speech. He can only "Hear" who/what happens to & around him in the aftermath of man's inhumanity to man.

bgordon1234 I came across this play after hearing a reference to it in a conversation I had with one of my gay friends. I immediately went online and found a DVD version. I've since watched it half a dozen times or so.People keep going back to Valerie Perrine's "nude" appearance in the play but really it's a distraction from the actual content. The dialogue written by Bruce Jay Friedman is sharp, poignant but badly needs revising to meet today's world as opposed to 1973. The two gay characters are not how you would portray the gay community today. Yes, queens exist in the gay community but I do believe they would be portrayed differently, with different songs, different attitudes and slightly different behaviors.Valerie's character is a bit of an "airhead." And I think in today's feminist culture, that character would badly need to be updated with a kind of woman who offers more than just good looks. Bixby's character should also be revised because he's blatantly sexist and admits as much in some of his references and in his monologues. The power of this play really comes down to Bixby's character and how he realizes that he's now come full circle and is atoning before God all of this "sins" and now wants to lead a good and just life and just when he's ready to do so, he dies of a heart attack in a Chinese restaurant. It's a question we all mull from time to time. We wrestle with our own personal and spiritual demons. Have we lived a good life? Could we have done better? What would you say to "god" if h/she actually presented him/herself to you? And is there any need for atonement? Should you even care? And what if you're stuck in purgatory. Is a steambath the opportune place for you to redeem yourself before god? And what if you have no faith to begin with? How will god convince you that h/she is god? These are the questions that Tandy's character faces and they are brilliant questions.And the ending is powerful. We all leave this life, ultimately, ALONE, and we must prepare ourselves and hopefully, we have enough time to have done so before our lives end. It's just that Tandy's character needs to be updated and revised to reflect today's world and not 1973.Some of Bruce Jay Friedman's dialogue is just dated, pure and simple. People today wouldn't understand or get references to the 1930's at all and I would update some of the other characters as well.God as a Puerto Rico janitor is brilliant and I wouldn't change much other than having him work with an Apple computer instead of the piece of junk that's used in the '70's version.This play at its core is fantastic. It just needs an rewrite to reflect the times we live in TODAY. Matter of fact, I'd love to rewrite this play and see it get produced!

bel-39 I saw this a long time ago and never forgot it. I think it was some sort of take off of Jean Paul Satrtes "No Exit"....But won't spoil it for you, watch the play, folks. The acting, the script, the characterizations, all were excellent. My personal favorite was "Jesus". Very funny, not for the religiously rigid, I must say!!!Bruce Jay Friedman was the author, this was his second play, and very intelligently written. Wish all comedies were so. Great thinking on a touchy subject, it is not to be missed by the mystically flexible. And really fun to watch. I am going to make it a part of my collection, been telling people about it for years.