Midnight shows celebrate psychotic humor

Pity the poor playgoer who wanders into Onyx/Table 8’s midnight production expecting a work of depth, subtlety and poetic language.

He won’t find any of that in "The Book of Leviticus Show" and "Theodora: She-Bitch of Byzantium." But that’s not to say the two one-acts aren’t hysterically funny. It’s probably healthier, though, to be prepared for what you’re getting before you enter the demon zone.

The one-hour program, expertly directed by Troy Heard, is a celebration of cynical, sexual and psychotic humor. People with taste need not apply.

Christopher Durang’s "Leviticus" is a short video dramatizing the efforts of a West Virginia Bible-thumper (played by Deanne Grace) to carry out what she sees as one of the holy book’s wishes: to make dead those men who lie with men.

As her character prepares to fulfill the Lord’s will on public access TV, Grace drives home the image of the ever-smiling zealot. Her chumminess makes her actions humorously horrifying.

"Theodora" features the adventures of, among others, oiled-up warriors (Lysander Abadia and Johanzen Palomata), a gypsy queen (Troy Tinker), a former circus performer turned neurotic empress (Anthony Avery), a perverse, predatory king (Gus Langley) and his long-suffering sex slave (Jason Nino).

Charles Busch, who wrote "Psycho Beach Party," excels at this kind of low-brow humor, and Heard knows how to pump it. I don’t remember much of the plot, but I do remember the jokes and the skin.

The performances are campy but not stupid. I particularly enjoyed Anne Davis Mulford as Aunt Vulva (don’t ask), whose exotic look is highlighted by two eyelashes, violently jutting out way beyond the usual distances; Tinker, whose gypsy queen is absurdly maternal and peculiarly sensual; and Nino, a young performer whose seductive show-stopping number equals the uncomfortable effectiveness of an exotic dancer. (Where did this legitimate actor learn this stuff?)

It’s worth noting, though, that Vegas theater is starting to get overwhelmed with short, slight, campy scripts being performed by actors and directors working on multiple shows. Are directors and actors putting less effort into single projects? Are theaters getting too desperate for product? Or am I just a chronic complainer?

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at vegastheaterchat @aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.