Three Imaginary Girls

Seattle's Indie-Pop Press – Music Reviews, Film Reviews, and Big Fun

The first half of WET's What is Sexy? has all the giddy, naughty humor you'd expect from… well, a WET offering called What is Sexy?. The show, which happens to be the eclectic troupe's 2nd season finale, was pieced together from actual people's actual responses to that actual titular question: think Wonderful Life, only with leather n' lace instead of boughs o' holly.

And the answers begin even before the pre-show announcements end — you come to realize that Jonathan Martin is disrobing himself as he officiously tells the audience to silence cell phones — and through the midpoint of the play everyone in the ensemble is in some state of undress. That scantily-clad, able-bodied cast (Colin Byrne, Mikano Fukaya, Elise Hunt, Jeanette Maus, and Lathrop Walker) are fantastic in their frisky little sketches, it's going great, really great, building to something, yes, yes!… then the show suddenly blows its load. There's a moment of refractory darkness, clothes go back on, the lovely red-velvet curtains adorning the stage are sloppily peeled away, and what was gleeful and hot becomes dense and pretentious.

It's like enjoying a fun, playful booty-call, only to find yourself post-orgasmic with someone you're realizing you don't really like.

I wish I could recommend going to the show and leaving after the toe-curling burst but before the premature flaccidity sets in. Given the space confinements of the Little Theatre, though, that would just be rude. Oh well. Even the best lay has an off night once in a while.