(With a title like this, it\'s hard to say \"WARNING - spoiler ahead\" because you know pretty much where it\'s headed.)

Robert Dryden plays an old-time elevator operator in a hotel who\'s about to be retired, forcibly, when a new passenger-operated elevator is to be installed. The manager of his building gives him notice that his job\'s about to end real soon, like tomorrow, but will give him a week\'s pay, etc.

Dryden\'s been a faithful, good elevator operator, and the tenants, including a faded, dying actress, deeply appreciate him and are very sad at what\'s about to happen. But that\'s nothing compared the sadness he and his elevator feel. They talk to one another, or rather she to him (we can\'t hear \"her\" voice or any sounds other than the normal mechanical ones an elevator makes) and he sings to her. \"She\" seems to hatch a plot...could it involve murder of the hotel manager?

Interesting note: we do get to hear Dryden sing in this, and his voice sounds like...Robert Dryden singing. He could carry a tune. However, his melancholy death chanty near show\'s end was a real downer. In fact, that describes this particular play. It didn\'t leave me sad like \"Out of focus\" or \"Star Sapphire\", but just put a real downbeat note in my day. The characters seem almost mismatched for the play...they\'re almost cartoonish, particulary the hotel manager, yet the play is a very serious one.

To me, it was like watching a fully melodramatic version of Romeo and Juliet performed by Donald and Daisy Duck...something was just slightly out of kilter. But then, that\'s JMHO. 