The press release calls Vampire Virgins From Venus "a musical F-Troop in outer space." But that description is just too narrow for a show so broad it also takes a bite out of The Rocky Horror Show, Little Shop of Horrors, and all those ridiculously awful Saturday-afternoon creature features you'd watch on TV as a kid. This show is mindless, it's camp—heck, it's sometimes even just downright dumb. But most of the time it's plain, silly fun. It's no mistake that a musical about a quartet of fang-toothed femme fatales who have never sucked anything headier than blood out of a man are starving to death on a planet whose name, naturally, rhymes with "penis." When a group of astronauts arrives in search of some missing cosmonauts, these lusty ladies steal the spaceship and fly back to Earth to take advantage of the prodigious food supply. Dildo humor, of course, is big here, from names like Queen Dyldono (Michele Mais), the leader of the bats, to the phallic set pieces, to the endless supply of the tool itself that Cap'n Bob (Jamie Kaler), leader of the astronauts who find the bat babes, keeps pulling out of his supply pack.
Casting aside, the overriding strength of the show is the lively score by Gerald Sternbach and Gary McAuley. Together, the pair demonstrates far more restraint, a wider emotional range, and a greater degree of cleverness with the lyrics than McAuley does individually with his book. There, he tends to become monotonous, allowing his script to become a virtual landfill of bad jokes with little room for anything else. Contrast—a necessary element—is rarely found here. McAuley relies too heavily on variations of the same joke (more than a couple of wisecracks about something or other being "in vein" gets to be, well, in vain), which gradually diminishes audience response from outright laughter to mere chuckles to weary sighs. Eventually, some of the book scenes become anemic and just fall flat.
But you certainly can't fault the actors. Director David Galligan has assembled a vibrant cast, that brings enormous sparkle and energy to the show. (Actually, a lot of that sparkle comes from Anthony Wilson's glittery makeup and colorful hair designs, as well as Thomas G. Marquez's spiffy, sexy costumes, but you get the idea.) Mais is in full-out diva mode as Queen Dyldono, and Kaler is squeaky clean as Cap'n Bob, who struggles with a bladder control problem at the slightest sign of stress.
Petite Kym Hoy is a knockout as the naïve baby vampire, Barbella, then finds other shades of innocence as Aerial, a young housewife who must help save planet Earth. As Cap'n Bob's second-in-command, Michael A. Sheppard has a powerful presence and voice that befit his nickname, Bull, and, later, his persona as the leather-loving General Pygar. David Holladay and David G. Robinson also demonstrate great comic versatility in their respective dual roles as Doc/Professor Ping and Greer/Bunny Creswell. Marnie Alexenburg and AnnaLisa Erickson add life, so to speak, to bloodsuckers Kelina and Jasiper. Set designer Wally Weiss captures that "B" movie feel with his cartoonish, industrial gray set, fancifully lit by Kathi O'Donohue.
"Vampire Virgins from Venus," presented by Gary Blumsack at the Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6537 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. Sept. 12-Nov. 19. $18.50-22.50. (323) 856-4200.