Review: Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by City Theatre Company
by Stephen Meigs
All politics is local, they say. Is all theater local, too? And can theater be politics? Find out. Go see Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. Even better, phone your right-wing conservative religious uncle and invite him to go with you to see it at the City Theater where it's now playing. Don't tell Uncle the name of the show, don't give the game away. Just say “Gee, Uncle, it's a comedy and the first scene is set in a famous Biblical city!”
First scene, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom: A sweet, innocent 14-year-old flaxen-haired Vestal Virgin is chosen as a sacrifice for a blood sucking lesbian demon, the Succubus. The virgin played by Joe Hartman in a long blonde Rapunzel wig, red lipstick and mascara struggles to escape, gets grabbed by the palace guards, and with flailing arms and legs screams "Break my hymen! Break my hymen!" Too late, virgin babe. The Succubus, Kirk Kelso with an evil sneer and a hellish red page boy wig, bites her on the neck and she swoons.
Is she dead? Not exactly.
All theater is local politics. Your uncle may bolt out of the theater and your life forever.
Or maybe he'll rip his Romney button off and try to stab you with the pin?
Or surprise, surprise. He could giggle and change in ways your aunt will never understand.
Most people see Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and laugh their asses off. It's just so damn ridiculous. It's got action faster than a speeding improv. It's weirder than an op-ed page in a free weekly. It cold cocks you with its purse and then makes you beg for it again.
Succubus sucks virgin blood - but - Vestal Virgin bites Succubus on the arm as her virgin blood gets sucked away. Virgin also becomes vampire. So the plot goes.
The action of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom tracks these two sultry, strange, wise-cracking lesbians through the centuries, catching them at night in places famous for their night life. Sodom first, then the back lots of 1920s Hollywood, then back stage in 1970s Las Vegas. Each confrontation between the two dames is a drum solo on the audience's brain, recalling, celebrating, and lampooning old Hollywood films that we all have seen. Old vampire films. Old Hollywood musicals. A bit of Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Marilyn Monroe. Playwright Charles Busch uses our collective memory of Hollywood films like it's his personal whorehouse piano, and his boggie-woogie style is his endless surprise.
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is funny whether it's played in drag or not. The City Theater production is totally cross-dressed, which is okay, though it can make the actors a little cross-eyed about where the laughs are coming from. Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is about bigger-than-life movie stars, our cosmic collective memory of femme. Underneath the big brassy laughs and schtick is a geniune love for the beautiful, archetypal strong cinema heroines of yesteryear. A man in a dress is funny for about 30 seconds. An actor playing a Charles Busch heroine, in a dress, with the endless gags, puns, and punch lines deliciously laced together, always original, and sometimes hysterically vulgar, is funny for the length of the show while making us also feel and care. We can love these ladies. Busch loves them. Yes, he lampoons them, but in doing so he keeps his icons strong and great. It's a duality and it's his genius. It's a send-up. It's a celebration.
Scott Poppaw as the half-catatonic, mask-faced, bizarre butler Etienne is right on, and would have stolen everything in the Hollywood scenes except for the fact that Joe Hartman as film star Madeline Astarte is busy nailing down some great punch lines. I thought the blonde ingenue Renée in that scene was a real girl, though the program revealed to me later that she's an illusion created by Ronnie Williams. Austen Simien brings a hyperkinetic energy to his roles; he will be a lot funnier when he also finds the through-line, the real wants and calm centers of those characters. John Lopez has the most difficult, most absurd turn, a 180-degree costume and character change while you watch, from female gossip columnist to macho vampire hunter in 3 seconds. Kirk Kelso brings all the bad out of his bad girls. I hope he can find the wistfulness, too.
Comedy is all about timing and precision, and a bit more precision and choreography could greatly improve the dancing scenes.
Some of the frenetic action is tough on young actors, turning and turning in the widening gyre... one actor stops listening to the other, things fall apart. So many gags, so little time. These actors will find their audience a great teacher. It's worth watching already.
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom by Charles Busch ran 5 years off-off Broadway. The show's success made it possible for the author, a consummate female impersonator, to write and star in other hilarious shows, including Psycho Beach Party, Lady in Question, and Shanghai Moon. His Tale of The Allergist's Wife, written for Linda Lavin, ran on Broadway for 777 performances. He claims not to have a political agenda, though once a Molotov cocktail leaves the hand of a revolutionary, it has no political agenda either. It just explodes. We can be grateful that the explosions Charles Busch creates are explosions of laughter.
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is playing at City Theater through November 17th in the late show slot at 10:30 p.m., for very good reason.
EXTRA
Click to view the program sheet for Vampire Lesbians of Sodom at the City Theatre
Hits as of 2015 03 01: 1286
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom
by Charles Busch
City Theatre Company
