‘Wonder’ Woman

Whatever floats your pervy boat, buddy -- say, a sex fetish involving Barbie heads, until your wife catches you, ya know, in flagrante de Barbie ...

Quite the visual, no?

Children, close the paper. Occupy yourselves with other activities, such as surfing the Internet for all those wonderful sites with the women who ...

Scratch that. Go play Yahtzee. The grown-ups need to talk.

"Suffice it to say, this is not an appropriate play for children," says Kate Lowenhar-Fisher -- who portrays Cass, the shocked wife of the doll-lusting deviant -- with a giggle. "But the audience won't blame her for leaving."

So a physical act we've decided to not visualize for fear of being psychologically scarred sets in motion the oddball events of "Wonder of the World," David Lindsay-Abaire's absurd comic treatise on one woman's self-discovery at Las Vegas Little Theatre's Black Box Theatre.

"The main character is looking for answers," says director Walter Niejadlik. "It's about doing the things you want to do and not sacrifice them to get this 'perfect life.' "

Not nursing a similar sexual affinity for Ken heads, Cass abandons her idealized married life in Brooklyn's Park Slope section after discovering hubby's horrifying habit, hopping a bus to Niagara Falls -- ironically, the symbol of honeymooning happiness -- to fulfill desires left unsatisfied when she settled down with Barbie boy. Though given her own to-do list, perhaps she shouldn't judge the fetish fella too harshly.

"They range from the mundane to pretty out there," Niejadlik says about Cass' Alice-through-the-looking-glass-style adventures. "From wanting to wear overalls to being a clown to witnessing a lethal injection. There are all these pretty kooky characters along the way."

Lethal injection-watching? Hey, pack a picnic basket, make a day of it.

"It's hilarious," Lowenhar-Fisher says. "She has been living this provincial life with this controlling guy in this perfect suburban setting. She made a list of things she wanted to do in life before she got married, like driving cross-country to being on 'The Newlywed Game' to even having a conversation with a stranger, just because her mother had told her not to talk to strangers."

This stage oddity debuted at the Manhattan Theater Club in 2001, starring "Sex and the City's" Sarah Jessica Parker. The piece garnered mixed reviews, including from The New York Times' Ben Brantley, who compared "Wonder" with Lindsay-Abaire's previous, similarly themed "Fuddy Meers" -- about an abducted, amnesiac wife whose kidnapper claims her husband wants to murder her -- and found "Wonder" not quite as comedically rich. Still, Brantley praised the playwright's "precociously assured hand for telling nasty truths with an electrified brightness. His style both embraces and spoofs the all-American appetites for spiritual uplift, sitcom perkiness and slimy, tabloid prurience."

"Wonder's" offbeat author has a fan in the local production's leading lady. "He's a remarkable playwright and certainly very good at drawing some very interesting women," Lowenhar-Fisher says. "He has fascinating views on marriage, the evolution of expectations of one another and their lives. It's about what we're told to want by our parents or teachers, these cultural norms that turn out to be deeply unsatisfying and stifling."

Yet "Wonder's" whimsy -- reliant on reality streaked with absurdity -- challenged the director and his cast to a tonal balancing act. "It's almost like an episode of 'Desperate Housewives,' " Niejadlik says. "Do you play it straight or go over the top? We've been trying scenes three or four different ways."

Comparing his efforts to those of a sound engineer, Lowenhar-Fisher says Niejadlik is "lowering the level or raising it. This play could stumble into the ridiculous. It's difficult to capture. You can almost hear the playwright cackling as we figure out how to play it."

While LVLT maintains more mainstream fare on its mainstage, Niejadlik says the riskier Black Box material is paying audience dividends. "We're shooting for a younger demographic with those, and the ones we've done recently" -- including the 9/11 comedy "Recent Tragic Events" and David Mamet's "The Shawl" -- "sold out many of the performances," he says. "Our subscribers, the die-hard theater audience, are buying tickets to both" traditional and more daring productions.

"Wonder" is certainly one of the latter.

Come back in now, kids. We're glad you busied yourself with Yahtzee and left Barbie in the box.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.