Mr. 80%
by James Sherman

THE STORY: Sharon, a no-nonsense young attorney, and Patricia, who is doing her medical residency, advertise for a roommate to help pay the rent of their New York apartment.

After a sour experience with Sharon's former live-in boyfriend, the two decide to specify either another woman or a gay male only, which elicits a response from Sam, a struggling young comic, who, with his partner, Jan, is desperate to find an affordable place to live—desperate enough to pose as a homosexual, with Jan as his lover.

The fact that Sharon and Patricia are taken in by the ruse leads to a series of hilarious misunderstandings, made even funnier by the swishy high jinks of the two attractive (and decidedly heterosexual) young men; and the fact that, inevitably, they find themselves falling in love with their toothsome roommates.

How to work out a happy ending for relationships involving two young women who have become embittered and suspicious by the perfidy of men in general; and two young men who, having been so successful in convincing their roommates that they are gay that they are now hard pressed to reverse the notion, is a test of the author's ingenuity—but one which Mr. Sherman meets with lively inventiveness, nonstop hilarity and, in the end, a redeeming touch of genuine warmth and humanity.