Sex...Because It Sells

A Musical Revue

OK, having a sense of humor about sex seems like a good idea. And there are some laughs in the revue Sex…Because It Sells, made up of new material, but sometimes feeling like old jokes.   

Is it good clean fun? More or less, though it’s not always good AND clean AND fun all at the same time.  It’s a series of songs and blackouts. This is mostly winking comedy, some of the good-natured but smirking variety that might have been a hoot in seventh grade. I got tired of counting the tired double entendres with the verb “to come.” Dialogue sections are really minimal except for an early monologue about using the “F” word and a scene where one guy reveals the secret to his bulging success. On the same topic, a song called “Size Doesn’t Matter” is kind of cutely presented as a perky Andrews Sisters style number where the harmonizing (or is it hormonize-ing?) female trio longs for something long. Like other pieces here, it is funny at first until it goes on, um, at length. (See? I can certainly understand the temptation to indulge in the word play when even writing a review of a revue on this subject matter without doing so intentionally or otherwise is hard.) 

Some rhymes are predictable—in a contemporary song lyric referring to male sexual dysfunction, you know what’s gonna rhyme with “Niagara,” right? Is it tough to find new yuks about sex? A song rattling off the many slang synonyms for body parts recalls a similar spoken litany in The Vagina Monologues and the song “Members Only” from Naked Boys Singing. There are no naked people here and the closest they get to suggesting simulated sex is stylized suggestive choreography, but that’s meant as a visual joke rather than anything else. 

To me, the humor was hit and miss, or hit and misguided, but I want to stress that many people in the audience were laughing far more often and more heartily than I did. Some of the laughs seemed to be paired with delighted naughty surprise, howls mixed with gasps that some things were being said (and sung) out loud. There is a sense of liberation here and certainly a sense that preoccupations with sex and vanity and insecurities are just human nature and shouldn’t be causes for alarm, embarrassment or dishonesty. Thus, permission is given to smile and/or indulge with songs mocking self-absorption of a mirror-glancing dancer who admires his body but praising self-gratification via vibrators (one is held tenderly and sung to).        

In a new revue about sex playing in a New York City cabaret today, it seems surprising that it’s so heterosexual-centric. A couple of visual pairings within opening choreography suggest they may be going there, but they don’t. Why not? The performers play different people in each song or quick skit. The only other acknowledgment of gays I noticed was when a guy is alone and says, “I miss Eduardo” - but we don’t see two men or two women as sexual or romantic mates, let alone any passing reference to a threesome or group sex. I wondered if the male couple holding hands at the table next to me felt left out.    

The cast of three women and two men had good moments and generally worked gamely and briskly. The standout is Dara Seitzman. She can be a wonderfully rubber-faced, bug-eyed comedienne and has a strong singing voice and loopy but savvy way about her. Her broad-accented, broad-humored “German Drinking Song” is near perfection. Her facial expressions as a disapproving, uptight mother from another generation are a howl – it’s instant and lasting hilarity when the lights come up on that bit and we see her imposing scowl (above her modern-day daughter, she’s a portrait hung on a wall and the actress holds the frame and holds the pose). Miles above most everything else, is a brilliantly conceived and performed high-energy routine called “Make-Up Sex” where Paige Hutchison and Jesse Sullivan fight alternately and lust after each other in a series of impressively athletic and sharply timed, fearless and fabulously funny choruses. Dana Mierlak gets her best moment when, with the other women, they are a hoot with Long Island accents kvetching about their oversexed husbands. Admirably, Jeremey Chase manages to find the heart and vulnerability that lurks beyond the smirks and the jerks of all the shenanigans when he voices a man’s insecurities.

Sex…Because It Sells was cooked up by John Cook, also its musical director/pianist and  Bethany Smith Staelens, who also directed and is an offstage, on-mic voice announcing the quick dialogue scenes. She introduces the show by good-naturedly and proudly saying it’s politically incorrect and an equal opportunity offender but those who’d be most generically offended would probably steer clear of a show with this title.         

More information at www.smith-staelens.com. 

THIS SHOW CAN BE SEEN AGAIN THIS SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10 @ 8pm, AT DON’T TELL MAMA, 343 WEST 46^th STREET.  $15 COVER ($10 FOR MAC MEMBERS) PLUS A 2-DRINK MINIMUM.  CASH ONLY.  RESERVATIONS; 212-757-0788.