Director Bart DeLorenzo and a mostly English cast get bad-boy Brit Joe Orton abso-bloomin’-lutely right in Loot, the provocative, hilarious latest from Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

No one wrote darker, cheekier, or more subversive comedies than Orton—or funnier ones for that matter—and no social institution is off-limits in 1965’s Loot, not the Roman Catholic Church or the London Police Force or parental authority or the British justice system or the funeral industry—all of them skewered to outrageously funny effect.

A couple of significant events have already transpired offstage when the lights go up.

 First of all, middle-aged Mrs. Mary McLeavy (Selena Woolery Smith) has recently met her maker, quite possibly with the help of comely-but-deadly nurse Fay (Elizabeth Arends), who having buried seven husbands in the ten years since she turned eighteen has now set her sights on Mrs. McLeavy’s bereaved widower (Nicholas Hormann).

Meanwhile, the McLeavys’ rascal son Hal (Robbie Jarvis) and his best mate/secret lover Dennis (Alex James-Phelps) have robbed the bank adjoining the funeral parlor where the latter works and now must find a way to stash and make off with the loot.

Investigating both Mrs. McLeavy’s suspicious demise and Hal and Dennis’s bank job is self-described “Metropolitan Water Board Inspector” Truscott (Ron Bottitta), who reveals in typically sly Ortonian terms why he has no warrant to search the premises. (“I’m sure the police must,” he explains, “but as I’ve already informed you, I am from the water board,” a blatant lie since as we soon learn, the man doing the searching is in fact Police Inspector Truscott.)

Talk about a recipe for subversive dark comedy, and with DeLorenzo directing at the Odyssey, the results of said recipe are scrumptious indeed, with added dollops of physical comedy and undercover homosexuality other productions may have shied away from.

First of all (and without changing a word of dialog), DeLorenzo has made the inspired choice to keep the deceased in full sight for much of Act One, whether impeccably made up and laid out in an open coffin, or tossed upside-down into a handy cupboard, or stripped down to her skivvies, scenes originally kept screened from audience view by pre-1968 government censorship regulations.

As for the play’s gay subtext, some surreptitious feel-copping not in Loot’s original stage directions makes it clear that Hal and Dennis are more than just good mates (even if Dennis is as eager to stick it to the ladies as he is to the gents as the production’s similarly stage-direction-tweaked finale makes titillatingly clear).

All of this adds up to a Loot for the 2010s, sinfully side-splitting and sensationally performed by a couldn’t be better cast beginning with London-born L.A. stage treasure Bottitta, wacky perfection as a police detective more Clouseau than Holmes.

Fellow Brits Jarvis (who gives lanky blond Hal a sexy air of mischief), James-Phelps (a hunky Dennis with a dark-haired dangerous edge), and Arends (the slinkiest, slyest, and most seductive of seven-time widows), and American players Hormann (who takes McLeavy from properly composed to a proper mess) and Smith (who not only gives Weekend At Bernie’s titular corpse a run for his money but doubles niftily as a gender-switched police officer Meadows) are all five absolutely fabulous.

Loot looks sensational on Keith Mitchell’s faded-floral-wallpapered living room set, expertly lit by Christine Ferriter. Michael Mullen’s period-perfect costumes (Fay’s little black mourning dress is a particular stunner), Josh La Cour’s multitude of props (from stolen bills to glass eye to dentures), and Bo Powell’s swingin’ ‘60s sound design merit their own cheers as does Mike Mahaffey’s fight direction (presumably involving the manhandling of Mrs. McLeavy’s corpse).

Loot is produced by Beth Hogan. Powell is assistant director. Laurien Allman is stage manager.

Even half a century after it shocked British sensibilities, Loot may still be a bit too scandalous to please those of the prudish persuasion, to which Joe Orton would likely respond, “Well bugger them!” If you ask me, Loot at the Odyssey is an abso-loot delight!

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 South Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles.
www.odysseytheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
June 29, 2019
Photos: Enci Box

Tags: Joe Orton, Los Angeles Theater Review, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble