No one had more fun with the double entendre than Mae West, who served up sexual titillation with a terrific wit and took it all the way to the bank. More than anything, she conveyed a sense of playful but fully adult sexuality. She never once embodied the dumb or desperate, and she was never in need of any rescuing. Stuffed into that corset, she was ready to play. And if you didn’t like her shtick, well fella, there’s the door — but why don’t you sit down and stay awhile, loosen your tie a little and let’s see if we can change your mind.
West was playing a version of herself, but she didn’t emerge from the womb fully formed. Hers was a character that came together in bits and pieces, only some of which are detailed in Claudia Shear’s fitfully satisfying, semibiographical play “Dirty Blonde,” which premiered in New York in 2000. The obsessions of two present-day fans become the show’s framing device, toggling back to scenes when a young West was still figuring out her game, and then later when she was woman in her 80s and ribald as ever.
Shear starred in that initial production (her performance and the play were nominated for Tonys), portraying West as well as the lovelorn 21st century New Yorker who finds a kinship and possible romance with a fellow West devotee.
The dual roles add up to an exhausting proposition — the theatrical equivalent of a whirling dervish — and Anne Sheridan Smith certainly has the right energy for it in this BoHo Theatre revival. She pushes little too hard at times, and she doesn’t quite capture West’s charisma (the script isn’t particularly strong on this point, either), but there’s real feeling in her performance as the modern-day single gal who doesn’t know where she fits in the world.
Nicholas Bailey and David Tibble round out the cast in several roles (primarily the men in West’s life), but despite the tiny cast this is a very busy show — too busy, it seems, scanning through time to really get to the nub of what made West tick. I don’t think that’s Shear’s point, anyway.
The play’s focus is strongest when it veers back to the present, and yet the person you most want to see onstage at any given moment is that platinum blast from the past.
When: Through May 1
Where: Theater Wit, 1229 W. Belmont Ave.
Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes
Tickets: $25 at 773-975-8150 or bohotheatre.com
