By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The hubbies are heard but never seen in Michele Lowe's black comedy The Smell of the Kill at Playhouse in the Park through May 30.

What are the guys up to while the trio of unhappy wives dish and dis in their designer kitchen?

"We take it very seriously," says Andy Prosky, who plays the embezzling husband. (Kevin Orton does double duty as the other two husbands - the skirt-chaser and the stalker.)

"We came to all the rehearsals. We worked very hard on developing relationships."

Developing bad relationships? "The men don't think the marriages are awful," he says, laughing.

The guys may be out of sight, but they are in costume. Much is made of the husbands practicing their putting in the dining room. Prosky doesn't have a golf club but says he "wear(s) a golf-like looking outfit - charcoal slacks, loafers, a button-down sweater. It's very nice."

They do like to rag their female co-stars. "We tell them, 'Going on stage is for girls," Prosky says, laughing again.

He's perfectly happy being an invisible man: "Don't cry for me, Cincinnati; I'm having a ball."

If you'd like to get a look at Prosky and Orton, you can see them at 8 p.m. Monday at the Promontory in Mount Adams where they'll be singing and playing the guitar. "It's sort of Nick Cave meets Johnny Cash," Prosky says.

Orton has creds - he's just recorded an album with Gordon Gano from Violent Femmes. Their efforts will benefit the graduate studies fund of local performer Jenny Timm, who promises an evening of "aggressive folk." (No cover, just pass the hat.)

For information and reservations for Smell of the Kill, call the box office at 421-3888. (And for fans of great character actor Bob Prosky, yup, this is his son.)