Charles Busch's pair of 1984 comedies makes for a nifty twin bill of high camp by the playwright, director, and drag impresario. Naturally both shows (as scripted) cast men in key female roles, an aspect well-exploited for comedic purposes by director Dave Barton.

Leading the pack is Jay Michael Fraley as the tremulous, psychic, cockney Fauna Alexander, a would-be fashion designer, in Sleeping Beauty and, in Vampire Lesbians, as the Virgin Sacrifice-actually three roles, with the Sacrifice in Biblical times reincarnated (in reality a member of the undead) as Madeleiné Astareté, first in 1920s Hollywood, then in 1990s Las Vegas. Fraley nails the latter three roles, the first as a sort of Lady Godiva desperate for sex; the second as a grotesque, Gloria Swanson-like silent-film grande dame; the third as a leggy, husky-voiced chain smoker.

His/her nemesis through the ages is the Succubus, a luscious female vampire who feeds on the blood of virginal young women. Like Fraley, Jessica Woodard creates one distinct persona (a Hungarian femme fatale) for ancient times and, for the '20s and '90s, two versions of her Theda Bara-like silent-film vamp, La Condesa, going for a deliberately overblown theatrical style for the latter. Peter Balgoyen has fun hamming it up as La Condesa's servant, a once-famous, now-obscure child star.

Less a parody of the classic fairy tale than of the mod world of 1960s London, Sleeping Beauty captures and satirizes that swinging time and place via Heather Enriquez's spot-on costume designs, Erika Tai's lighting, and Barton's sound design. Save for Brandon Kasper, who portrays a self-important American nutritionist whose kiss revives sleeping supermodel Enid Wetwhistle (Jami McCoy), Barton's cast has a ball as fashionable Londoners-notably Scott Barber, who patterns his portrayal of a fashion photographer on the Liverpudlian looks and voices of the '60s- and '70s-era Beatles.

Presented by Rude Guerrilla Theater Company at the Empire Theater,

202 N. Broadway, Santa Ana.

Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 2:30 p.m. (Also Thu. 8 p.m. Jun. 28 & Jul. 5.) Jun. 8-Jul. 7.

(714) 547-4688. www.rudeguerrilla.org.

Rude Guerrilla gets its gay on with two plays by the iconic Charles Busch

By JOEL BEERS

It’s no surprise that a politicized, decidedly non-mainstream theater company like Rude Guerrilla champions the work of Charles Busch.

Though his older plays are campy and gag-filled, concerned far more with pruriently stroking the funny bone than seriously contemplating social ills, at their best moments, Busch’s farcical romps approach serious art. Through their broad humor and trenchant satire of everything from sexual identity to media stereotypes, they give voice to the marginalized.

Rude Guerrilla, which often stages plays dealing with gay themes, was also attracted because no one gets their gay on like Busch; his style has less to do with sexual orientation and everything to do with cross-dressing, brazen flamboyance and queeny bitchiness.

Rude Guerrilla first staged Busch’s companion one-acts, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Sleeping Beauty or Coma 10 years ago when it was a gypsy theater company operating out of a Huntington Beach art gallery. The theater has grown mightily in terms of play selection and talent but remained true to its mission of left-of-center, cage-rattling material that makes up in provocation and intelligence what it may lack in sheer entertainment value.

Which is the main problem with its current remounting of Busch’s plays: They’re supposed to be funny. While Rude Guerrilla is many things, funny doesn’t top the list. It’s got plenty of actors with great comic timing and performance skills—and probably some directors who could channel both. But for the most part, Rude Guerrilla’s reputation is built on intense, serious drama, which is a few light years from the theater of the ridiculous championed by Busch.

That’s painfully, acutely apparent in the first play, Sleeping Beauty or Coma. It’s a mess, from director (and OC Weekly contributor) Dave Barton’s boringly static staging to most of the cast’s mangled accents. Comedy, especially broad, stylized comedy, has to move and always stay visually interesting. When it doesn’t, it’s a disaster—fine performances from Scott Barber, Jay Michael Fraley and Jamie McCoy aside.

Things get much better after intermission. Perhaps Busch’s most outrageous, most famous play, Vampire Lesbians is an hourlong odyssey through three of the most sexually depraved cesspools of human civilization: ancient Sodom, silent-film-era Hollywood and contemporary Las Vegas. It’s about two crafty, codependent succubi who plot, scheme and battle through the centuries for dominance—and the necks of any nearby virgins.

The better-written of the two plays, it is less dependent on English accents and contains enough genuinely funny and perversely beautiful moments to elevate it above cheap camp. Fraley shines as the more sensitive of the undead duo, bringing depth and emotional resonance to a character that could easily be played grossly over-the-top.

It’s still not the nonstop laugh riot expected from an evening with Charles Busch, but at least it’s entertaining enough to almost forget the unfortunate play that precedes it.

The OC Blade

Reviewed by Stan Jensen

Charles Busch is a very interesting person. His resume lists actor, writer, director and drag queen. He has probably been most seen in the HBO series Oz, in which he played Nat Ginzberg for two years. He also starred in full drag in the film versions of his plays Die, Mommy, Die! and Psycho Beach Party. His play Tale of the Allergist's Wife ran.for 777 performances on Broadway, and Rosie O'Donnell hired him to write the script for Boy George's musical Taboo.

Some 10 years ago, when a fledgling performance group called Rude Guerrilla Theater Company (RGTC) was poking around for scripts that would attract gay audiences in Orange County, it selected Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and Sleeping Beauty or Coma, both written by Busch, as its second production. "Its handful of performances at the Huntington Beach Art Center a decade ago delighted the tiny audiences that came to see it. It was a fun show that several of us talked about revisiting again, and when our 10th anniversary rolled around and we started thinking of a revival of one of our earlier plays, this pair of burlesque comedies was a shoo-in," said RGTC's Co-Artistic Director Dave Barton.

Sleeping Beauty or Coma begins the evening. It tells the tale of young British mod Enid Wetwhistle (Jami McCoy, who played the same role in 1997) and her rise from giddy receptionist to world-famous supermodel, all set in London's swinging 60’s. Enid must battle agency owner Miss Thick (a funny drag performance by Dusan Mandic that will really turn your head - away!), fading fashion designer Sebastian Lore (Stephen Wagner heading for a coronary with his delightful tantrums), upcoming designer Fauna Alexander (Jay Michael Fraley mugging every moment in the role created by Busch), and Fauna's rocker boyfriend, Ian McKenzie (played with bright-eyed nobility by Scott Barber). The plot has something to do with Enid's being given an overdose of LSD by the jealous fashion designe, forcing her into a coma. However, the whole setup is basically an excuse for lots of burlesque gags and cross-dressing. The laughs are fast and frequent, and Barton keeps the piece traveling at break-neck speed.

Upon returning from intermission, the audience encounters two scantily clad male slaves preparing to deliver a virgin to a succubus in Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, one of golden curls trailing almost to his knees. Fraley has played numerous leads for RGTC, and his star quality has never shined brighter than in these one-acts, where he seems to have an invisible follow-spot on him at all times. The nubile virgin discovers that the demonic succubus is actually a beautiful lesbian, played with authority and humor by Jessica Woodard. She bites the virgin and instills both lesbian and vampire traits in her.

However, this virgin is tougher than most, and the two lesbian vampires are destined to do battle for the remainder of history. We next encounter them as dueling divas seeking starring roles in 1920s silent pictures and finally as battling cabaret stars in 1990s Las Vegas. At this point, Fraley is joined by three nelly chorus boys for a lip-synched rehearsal of "1 Will Survive." Barber should be taken to task for his Uncle Tom-ish performance as a gay dancer, but the style of the performance is burlesque, and besides, he's so damned cute in his leather hot pants that no one can get very angry with him. Kasper and Peter Balgoyen play a host of supporting roles in both shows, and the offstage costume changes must move almost as fast as the on stage action does.