Playwright: Charles Busch
At: Open Eye at WNEP, 3209 N. Halsted
Phone: (773) 755-1693; $128-$18
Runs through: June 28
The Gidget flicks of the 1960s already stand on their own surfboards as camp. The perky innocence, the studio-imagined teenage angst, and the cheesy production values make one wonder how the folks behind such cinematic efforts kept a straight face while creating, producing, and editing such wholesome fluff. Charles Busch, the author of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, and several other camp-infused stage productions, didn’t have to add much to Psycho Beach Party to make it laughably lame camp humor. The roadmap was already there.
Credit Busch, though, with taking the conceits of the beach blanket world of Gidget and cohorts and adding in a dash of Hitchcock (a la Marnie) to give birth to one of his most fully realized scripts. Chicklet (played by Adam Cook in a role originally created by Busch himself) wants to surf with the guys and begs Kanaka (Tucker Curtis) to teach her. The idea, as we all know, is laughable: a tomboy shooting the curls? It’s not until Chicklet displays one of her most commanding multiple personalities—that of dominatrix Ann Bowman—that Kanaka, a budding masochist, begins to take her seriously. The story is beside the point. It serves as a springboard for exploring Gidget-themed clichés (watch as the gang surfs against a fake backdrop, eavesdrop as Chicklet’s nubile friend, Marvel Ann [Alexis Klossner] describes the best way to land a man, and attend the event of the season, the forbidden luau) tempered with the suspense contrivances of Alfred Hitchcock (why does Chicklet speak in all those weird voices? What childhood trauma caused her to split into a dominatrix hungry on world domination, a male model named Steve, a Black checkout girl, and others?). It’s all loopy fun, neatly wrapped up at the end by a five-minute psychoanalysis by budding therapist Starcat (Matt Brown) that reunites Chicklet’s personalities and revealing the hideous secrets her evil mother (Sara R. Sevigny) holds.
Open Eye Productions are capping a season of camp with this effort, using the tiny WNEP Theater to good effect (the only quibble is that only the front row can actually see everything because of the limitations of the space … when the actors are lounging ‘on the beach’ most audience members can’t see them because there’s no bank to the seating). The production, directed by company member Jason Lubow, has all the peaks and valleys of some really good waves. The ensemble is a mixed bag, with some really wonderful, over-the-top performances (Sara Sevigny, as Chicklet’s mother, is demented in a delightfully June Cleaver, Joan Crawford hybrid kind of way; Sabrina L. Kramnich, as Chicklet’s brainy best friend, Berdine, also has the style down exactly right). Unfortunately, some of the other actors don’t quite have the tongue-in-cheek chops to nail camp humor. In the lead, Adam Cook makes a game effort, taking on a demanding role (or rather roles) with superb effort. However, he doesn’t quite shine because he’s actually too over-the-top, winking at, instead of submersing himself in, his characters.
All in all, though, Psycho Beach Party, is good fun: a perfect beginning to an evening of drinking on Halsted street, coming up with your own multiple personalities, and exploring the darkest sides of your past.