Playwright: Erica Schmidt, Andrew Sherman and Susan Schwartz

At: Easy Street Players at Athenaeum Theatre Studio 1, 2936 N. Southport

Phone: 312-902-1500; $20

Runs through: June 30

BY SCOTT C. MORGAN

Critics like to tsk-tsk about the lack of creativity in American theater, particularly when movies are transformed into stage musicals. Yet, the instant movie-name recognition helps get butts into seats.

With a title like Debbie Does Dallas—The Musical, you know you’re probably in for some naughty X-rated fun—especially when you follow a dumb cheerleading squad who create ‘Teenage Services’ as a way to raise funds.

The idea for adapting the infamous 1970s X-rated flick grew out of the New York International Fringe Festival. Later transferring to the off-Broadway scene in 2002, Debbie was transformed into a musical by composer Andrew Sherman and Erica Schmidt.

Easy Street Players recently presented the Chicago premiere of Debbie Does Dallas and found it fit to be ‘remounted’ with most of its original cast. Alas, Easy Street Players can’t keep it up.

One huge mistake is director John Harwood’s inconsistent decision to set the whole shebang in modern times. If it was a 1970s period piece with horrendous fashions, audiences could be more forgiving of the show’s numerous jokes targeting dumb cheerleaders who have never heard of women’s lib. Now it’s just alarming to hear how these girls can’t type (in our age of instant text messaging) or have no concept of birth control.

Harwood also doesn’t craft enough comic bits (choreographic or otherwise) to punch up Debbie Does Dallas’ flimsy script. And though Heather Ho’s spare set design of a football field is clever, the bare walls create an unflattering acoustic din for the actors to compete with.

The energetic and mostly attractive acting company is also hampered by a taped score that drowns out many lyrics. Only sexy belter Stephanie Lyndsay Roeper, as Debbie, can really pound out the songs.

Of the cast’s four men, only Drew Hayes makes a truly convincing performance, since all of his smarmy characters are delineated through funny vocal and postural transformations. (His changing hairstyles also help a bunch.)

Debbie Does Dallas—The Musical aims to be nothing more than a naughty and campy trifle, though Easy Street Players’ production will probably leave you unfulfilled.