The sound you hear at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre is Mae West turning over in her grave at the travesty being made of Sex, the 1926 play that outraged critics but proved that season’s biggest Broadway hit and put its one-of-a-kind playwright-star on the map.

Apparently the folks at Buzzworks Theater Company felt that Sex would be as ripe for spoofing as their 2007 smash Bad Seed, a production that took a 1950s Maxwell Anderson hit, one that the intervening years had not treated well, and played it for laughs without changing a single word of the original text.

Unlike Bad Seed, however, Sex was already a comedy at its inception, albeit with dramatic elements, and camp enough as is. (With Mae West as its writer-star, how could its double entendres not have inspired laughs?)

West took mid-’20s Broadway by storm as Montreal-based hooker Margy LaMont, whose life takes a turn for the better when an English Naval officer named Lieutenant Gregg proposes that she join him at sea, travels that take her to a tropical island where millionaire Jimmy Stanton offers her a different kind of proposal and a ring to go with it.

Sex done Roaring 20s style might be worth reviving if only for curiosity’s sake. Performed straight (albeit heightened as was customary in the pre-method 1920s), it might at the very least be worth a look-see.

Unfortunately, Buzzworks’ Sex makes a mockery of Mae, its actors on so many pages, it would seem they had been directed by themselves and not by Sirena Irwin.

As Margy, a miscast Andrea Hutchman has Mae West’s voice but that’s it.

Supporting her (most in multiple roles) are Perry Brown, David Errigo, Lowam Eyasu, Kandace Lindsay, Susan Edwards Martin, Ryan Phillips, Brad Rupp, Carla Valentine, and Wayne Wilderson.

Performers do get to show off vocal and instrumental gifts in three or four Carmen Miranda-style songs not in West’s original but tacked on to scenes set in the tropics, and Buzzworks deserves kudos for non-traditional casting.

Michael Mullen scores high marks as always for his eclectic mix of period and island wear. Scenic designer Michael Flannery’s set is simple but effectively transforms from locale to locale, its falling curtains a nifty touch. Lighting designer Derrick McDaniel and sound designer David B. Marling do their accustomed professional work, though a series of corny music effects are the first signs that this production will be misguided at best. (Note: No photos accompany this review as the publicity shots provided do not accurately represent the production design.)

Sex is produced by Kevin Comartin and Jocelyn O’Keefe. Greg Kucukarslan is assistant director. Niki Armato is production stage manager.

I was looking forward to seeing Mae West’s Sex at the Hudson. Unfortunately, though the words were mostly Mae’s, the play I saw was not.

Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.
www.buzzworks.org

–Steven Stanley
May 26, 2018

Tags: Buzzworks Theater Company, Los Angeles Theater Review, Mae West