‘Titanic’ stays afloat despite maniacal tone

Peter Stone, the author of the book to the Broadway musical "Titanic," once said he dreaded the title of that show. He felt it would be too easy for critics to write things like, "Titanic sinks," or "Titanic goes down with the ship." Las Vegas Little Theatre, though, is safe. Its production of the title in question is ridicule-proof.

The first thing to note, of course, is that director T.J. Larsen's show has nothing to do with the musical, the 1997 film, or anything approaching historical fact (except that a ship may or may not be sinking). Christopher Durang's play uses the tragedy to send up, God help us, bondage, incest, sex toys, family relationships and, of course, religion. I suspect that many of those who think they'll be turned off by the subject matter will be surprised at how hilarious it all is. The script is too innocent a farce to be offensive.

There's no point in saying much about the plot except that a bunch of ethically challenged folk are trying to cope with their lives while a frustrated sailor (Scott Audrey) repeatedly attempts to convince everyone that an iceberg is about to cause big trouble.

Larsen establishes a consistently maniacal tone that still, somehow, manages to suggest a reality. It's an amazing feat, considering he's dealing with characters like a young girl (the dangerously energetic Penni Mendez) who has a penchant for keeping pets in her private parts; a loud, attractive socialite wannabe (the towering powerhouse Susannah Smitherman) who can't remember which children she actually gave birth to; her very uppity, proper and perverted husband (Joel Wayman, in a beautifully scaled performance); and a mysterious son of unknown parentage and age (the mysteriously subdued Andy Lalama).

Add to that Audrey's naturalness (nearly every character wants to bed him, and Audrey seems genuinely confused), Joe Hammond's hilarious caricature of a boisterous captain who likes to put sex toys on his nose, and the occasional visual effects of a tossed-and-turning vessel, and you have on your hands -- improbably -- one of the best comedies of the season.

Larsen's bare-bones set suggests different areas of the ship, and it functions well on several levels: It gives us a sense of the past (the rooms reek of history), an easily identifiable sense of place and a hint of the mayhem to come.

I've sat through so many incompetently directed farces that I expected to groan a lot during this production. But, with apologies to Stone, this "Titanic" rewrites history and sails beautifully.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.