Sex 

Reviewed by Neal Weaver 
Buzzworks Theater Company 
Through June 17  

We don’t think of Mae West as a literary figure, but she wrote three plays — Sex, The Drag, and Pleasure Man. All were produced on Broadway, and all were closed by the police on grounds of obscenity. This seems hard to fathom, since nowadays they seem no more obscene (or even risqué) than TV’s genteel Hallmark murder mysteries. But West was always a specialist in scandal, with a genius for the suggestive.

Although she was hardly a major playwright, West did have a canny eye for what her audiences liked, and she wrote about aspects of real life that few others touched at the time, including prostitution and gay and transgender relations. In Sex, she focuses on a character she originally played, Margy Lamont, a prostitute and performer operating in Montreal.

When Margy (played here by Andrea Hutchman) is falsely accused of a crime by a slumming society matron, she has to flee Montreal and heads for the Carribean, where she meets Jimmy (Ryan Phillips), the naïve son and heir of the fabulously rich Stanton family. He knows nothing of her sordid past and, immediately smitten, wants to take her home to meet his family. His mother, Clara (Susan Edwards Martin) wildly disapproves — but it turns out she has skeletons in her own closet.

I suspect that West’s play is better than it appears to be here. Director Sirena Irwin clearly didn’t trust the text and felt obliged to trick it out with artificial gimmicks, stylization, and presentational techniques rather than letting it speak for itself. (One of the actors seems to be vying for membership in John Cleese’s “school of funny walks.”) The emotional realities are cast aside, and what is left seems like pretty thin stuff: if we’re not allowed to believe in Jimmy’s innocence and naivete, we can’t believe Margy’s feelings for him.

The play’s second scene, set in the Carribean, seems almost like a separate cabaret show in which vintage pop songs are stylishly performed by Hutchman, Martin, David Errigo, Kandace Lindsey, and others.  As a Westian sexpot, Hutchman seems miscast. But she receives solid support from Wayne Wilderson as a Navy lieutenant pursuing Margy, Susan Edwards Martin as Jimmy’s ditsy mother, and others. The most remarkable elements of the production are the spectacular costumes by Michael Mullen: his gorgeous 20’s gowns and colorful Caribbean costumes are far more professional and elegant than most other aspects of the production.

Hudson Mainstage, 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Online ticketing: https://dime.io/events/buzzworks-sex. Running time: two hours with one intermission.