Word: shirley
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...Shirley Wilbur as Lily provides most of the play's humor. Her cackling laugh and marvelous expression convey her character's wifty lunacy. Everything she knows she has learned from television; she rants and raves about the savagery of the Third World as she plans to boil her husband "like a lobster--lobsters don't feel pain." Guy Strauss as Mitch, the butt of most of these jokes, plays the vegetable (or lump, or carrot) brilliantly; when he begins to recover towards the end, his twitches and moans are appallingly funny...
...small-town boy behind. Over the years, he changed his name from Hartpence to Hart, changed his age to make himself a year younger, changed his signature, became a movie buff and began drinking margaritas (in moderation). His circle of friends broadened from Duane Hoobing to Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine. An antiwar activist in the late '60s, he obtained a commission in the Naval Reserve in 1980 at the age of 44. He wanted to be ready to serve in the Persian Gulf if war broke out, he explained, although as a noncombat officer in the Judge Advocate...
Kaplan implies that Shirley must maintain this tough armor in order to compete as a drag racer. Indeed, Shirley is seldom discouraged by patronizing or chauvinistic comments and behavior. When a fellow racer blows her a kiss before they start a race she confidently gives him the finger. Shirley must concede slightly, however, to help herself get ahead. When she moves to California she puts on shorts and calls herself Cha-Cha Muldowney. Soon, however, she resumes her real name, adamantly claiming her womanhood. When she goes on a cooking show on Canadian T.V. as a special guest...
...Rossi gives one of the film's best performances as Shirley's mechanic husband, who willingly supports her career until his own personal failures create an almost unbearable tension between them. Shirley's lover, the compulsive playboy played by Bridges, is for some obscure reason attractive to Shirley, who along with his wife puts up with his compulsive womanizing...
Despite some occasionally effective scenes and characterizations, Heart Like a Wheel rarely lets us see beneath Shirley's facade of sheer determination to win. As Shirley spins toward success, her emotional world seems as inert as the metal of the wheel itself...