Theater review: ‘Spike Heels’ at Actors Circle Theater

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First produced around the same time that Anita Hill was testifying before Congress, Theresa Rebeck’s “Spike Heels” was an updated “Pygmalion” that touched on, among other issues, the timely topic of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Revisiting the play almost 20 years later, one is struck by the durability of Rebeck’s themes. One is also struck anew by the often repetitive circularity of her characters’ dialogue. Despite that occasional irritation, Rebeck’s sprawling and sophisticated comedy is so scathingly funny one forgives the occasional tautology.

In the play’s current production at Actors Circle Theater, director Stan Zimmerman shrewdly underplays the laughs in his quest for emotional veracity, and a terrific cast admirably fulfills that agenda.

The central character, Georgie (Vanessa Parise) is a sexy working-class vamp whose neighbor and (so far) platonic friend, the bookish Andrew (Jeff Roop), has undertaken Georgie’s intellectual education. Engaged to prim, rich Lydia (Katie Walder), Andrew has so far resisted Georgie’s brazen allure. However, when Andrew learns that Georgie’s boss and his own longtime best friend, Edward (Robin Dunne), has been hassling Georgie for sex, his caveman instincts are aroused.

Rebeck’s comical archetypes – the siren, the bookworm, the prude and the rogue – are cleverly inverted, and the cast, particularly the effectively charming bad boy Dunne, imbue their characters with a raw believability throughout. Never descending to male-bashing, “Spike Heels” remains a witty and well-balanced treatment of the male-female dynamic, in all its flagrant messiness – and enduring hopefulness.

– F. Kathleen Foley

“Spike Heels,” Actors Circle Theater, 7313 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood. 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Jan. 31. $15. (323) 960-7792. www.plays411.com/spikeheels. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.