If they thought this was bad, can you imagine what their take would be on Inferno with Lindsay Lohan?
from www.nytimes.com – When your subject is the most notorious hard-core pornographic film ever made, surely puerile sexual innuendo becomes superfluous? Apparently not to the creators of “The Deep Throat Sex Scandal,” xxx.xxxdeepthroat.com who begin ladling it out even in the preshow cellphone announcement.
There has been extensive commentary on the impact of that low-budget 1972 movie, which grossed $600 million, becoming the porno-chic emblem of the new freedom and the target of the Nixon administration’s cleanup war. In particular, the 2005 documentary “Inside Deep Throat” wove a fascinating account of the film’s history and enduring legacy.
That raises the question of what David Bertolino, a first-time playwright, hoped to add to the discourse with this dramaturgical shambles. The play brings no discernible point of view, no contemporary perspective beyond a winking Viagra allusion and a self-congratulatory coda, and no social context that couldn’t be gleaned in a quick Wiki hit.
Its occasional mumbling about First Amendment rights seems more afterthought than agenda in this clumsy re-enactment of the film’s production, release and subsequent obscenity trials, which unfolds like a witless “Laugh-In” sketch.
Given his role as scapegoat in the legal strife, Harry Reems (Malcolm Madera) bumps his co-star Linda Lovelace (Lori Gardner) to supporting status. But Mr. Bertolino lacks the playwriting smarts to craft an arc for the character. Mostly, Harry just seems to be along for the ride.
Jerry Douglas’s slapdash production does nothing to minimize the ineptitude. I kept wondering whether there was some beyond-bad, trash-theater experimental aesthetic I was missing as the tone lurched from realism to campiness and back. It started to seem plausible that theatergoers were being punked.
After the movie’s release the action shifts to a Memphis courtroom, so we get amateurish acting, plus ropey Tennessee accents, plus some of the deadliest wigs ever placed on human heads. Doesn’t Linda put up with enough from her abusive louse of a husband, Chuck Traynor (Zach Wegner), without having to wear that toxic weave?
Period songs are often heard years before they were released, and in his closing speech Harry talks about the movie as a trailblazer for artistic expression, opening the door for works like “Oh! Calcutta!,” which actually had its premiere three years before “Deep Throat.” But research blunders are the least of the crimes here.
“The Deep Throat Sex Scandal” continues in an open-ended run at the 45 Bleecker Street Theater, 45 Bleecker Street, East Village; (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com.