"Dr. Sex," the new musical bio of Alfred Kinsey, is a bubbly, bouncy, lighthearted entertainment. Don't expect to learn anything at this old-fashioned musical comedy. Some of the details are inaccurate but, like a satiric cabaret, this show for mainstream audiences (coy about sex) is fun without being deep, amusing rather than pointed. With a nerdy but endearing performance by Brian Noonan as Dr. Kinsey and a dynamite portrayal by Jennifer Simard of his wife, Clara, "Dr. Sex" has no ambitions to be anything other than what it is: good clean fun.
In Larry Bortniker and Sally Deering's book, Kinsey introduces his story backed up by "The Kinsey Players," an ensemble of six performers who also play a host of minor roles. "Dr. Sex" covers the main points of Kinsey's career: his teaching at Indiana University, marriage to one of his students, segue into sex research after examining the reproductive activity of the gall wasp, and subsequent problems gaining funding and credibility for his taboo-breaking work. The drama focuses on the sexual threesome formed by the Kinseys and their wide-eyed, overworked assistant, Wally, played with cheerful good humor by Christopher Corts. Featured players David Edwards and Linda Cameron stand out as a series of repressed professors and bureaucrats.
The double entendres are mild enough for the family hour. The sole nude scene, in which Kinsey and his male students go on a retreat, has them wearing well-placed tree limbs, life preservers, and the like around flesh-colored bikinis. The heat is to be found in some of Bortniker's melodic and clever songs, particularly Simard's showstopping torch song "The Doctor's Wife," and the first act finale, an orgy in Chicago's "Pharaoh's Tomb" nightclub.
"Musical of Musicals" director Pamela Hunt departed the production during previews due to "creative differences." No directing credit is now listed, but Greg Hirsch gets "entire production supervised by" billing.