Sex Advice from Cyrano

So how do the new and old Cyranos, with their radically different views of romance, ultimately arrive at similar conclusions about the effectiveness of language? It has less to do with the Cyranos, and more to do with their Roxanes. The new Cyranos all tend to assume that the listener is shallow. And indeed, Cyrano de Bergerac's biggest flaw is that Cyrano's passion for Roxane is never quite justified because she never appears as an object worthy of his devotion. She is supremely fickle. When Christian tries to speak for himself and says "I love you," Roxane instructs him to "Embroider it." When he fails, she demands that he "retrieve / Your scattered eloquence. Otherwise—leave."

Ultimately, a show like Wanna Come In? has not deviated as far from its inspiration as it may at first seem. Cyrano's lasting contribution is not its attitude toward romance, but its attitude toward women. (Wanna Come In? never featured a female pair seducing a male date.) You win over a woman by telling her what she wants to hear. It doesn't really matter if you're cynical or sincere, aiming for her heart or her underwear: Whether you mean it or not is almost beside the point. At one point in Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano tells Christian that the words he writes are "airy nothings ... The more eloquent for being insincere." He is lying, but today the lines ring true. Lovelorn Cyrano may not have exactly been a player, but Rostand certainly understood the game.

Ben Crair is an associate editor at The Daily Beast.