Bowing to his wife of 13 years, the author of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus won't be working on Valentine's Day. But John Gray, 45, will do overtime in the days preceding Feb. 14 (''Venus' national holiday,'' he says), as he brings his 10-million-copy best-seller to its latest venue: a weeklong engagement at the 1,933-seat Gershwin Theatre on Broadway.
How did a self-help book make it to the largest auditorium on the Great White Way? For one thing, the gig is the next logical step for a one-man show whose eager audience has steadily escalated from counseling sessions and seminars all the way to a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall last year.
For another, many feel that Gray's touchy-feely take on the war between the sexes -- which portrays Martians (that is, men) as goal-oriented, driven, solitary cavemen and Venusians (women) as soft, moody, gab-loving mollusks -- is actually pretty funny. (It has begotten the inevitable CD-ROM, a movie deal with 20th Century Fox, and four book sequels, which guide Martians and Venusians through the challenges of being In Love, In the Bedroom, Together Forever, and On a Date.) And opening night confirmed that there is something very faintly redolent of stand-up comedy in Gray's shtick. He mugs as enthusiastically as Richard Simmons. He looks a bit like Robert Urich. And his voice has a dash of well-oiled Casey Kasem hoarseness. The audience at the debut included a lot of couples that laughed knowingly at lines like ''The women here are saying 'Oh, goody, he's going to talk about relationships.' The men are thinking: How many seats are in this theater? How much per ticket? How much is he making?'' (At up to $55 per ticket, Gray's run will probably gross in the tens of thousands per diem.)
But during the second act, a cloud of unease began to form. For one thing, a celebrity panel that Gray added just for his Broadway appearance proved a tad disruptive. The guinea pigs included skeptical supermodel Frederique (who didn't relate to the idea of women ''Hoovering around the home''), outspoken adherent Another World star Linda Dano, and apparently ambivalent rapper Q-Tip. Octogenarian comedian Joey Adams interrupted Gray's banter with cracks about his New York Post columnist wife, Cindy Adams. ''All this talk about men and women is a lot of baloney,'' Adams said. ''In my house, I'm the boss. The only trouble is when I raise my hand she never calls on me.''
The next day, a decision was made to jettison the panel; a spokeswoman said the audience wanted ''more sex stuff.'' And indeed, many theatergoers were filtering out before the wrap-up, even as Gray was feebly declaring ''There's a sweet feeling in this room. It's a feeling of love.'' A tougher crowd, perhaps, than the relationship guru is used to? Gray refuses to lose faith. ''People here are more honest and more direct, and I like that,'' he says. '''Cause my message will stand up to that.''
