‘GLORY OF HER SEX’

The Chevalier d’Eon de Beaumont would have understood the plight of Sarah Dreher’s women. As Louis XV’s spy in the Russian court, his female disguise proved so successful that he took it on the road. Or tried to, as Tom Jacobson’s new would-be satire, “The Glory of Her Sex,” suggests.

A less energetic show than Patrick Watkins’ at the West Coast Ensemble’s new, “black box” theater (in the former home of American Theatre Arts) wouldn’t conceal what is a play in search of a tone and a comic voice.

If D’Eon (Ken Cortland) can’t be entirely sure of his sexual identity, Jacobson can’t decide whether to tell this remarkable bit of history with Mel Brooks shtick or William Congreve aplomb.

David Arnott’s Louis XVI (his father now dead) and Joann Willette’s Marie Antoinette speak in today’s lingo and do a sort of Gene Wilder/Madeline Kahn routine, while everyone else is closer to the era’s style. Comedy, especially political comedy, shouldn’t italicize its anachronisms--unless there’s a point to be made in the process. And if anyone should be mod, it’s D’Eon.

We’re meant to see royalty as the butt, and D’Eon as a hero leading the gender revolution shoulder-to-shoulder with the Americans’ revolt against France’s enemy. In fact, Jacobson’s heavy-handed insistence on this point ends up having all the predictable dreariness of socialist realism. Occasionally he inches toward a mild satire of D’Eon, but then he backs away as he gives the flamboyant transvestite another florid speech.

To reverse a phrase, director Watkins’ best defense is a good offense. His actors whirl and duel and run in and out of scenes. They fly up designer Jan Utstein’s spiral staircase. They descend by swinging ropes. For some in the audience, seated downstairs or in the balcony in a square surrounding the action, they play rowdy crowd scenes a bit too convincingly.

Some, like Cortland and Eric Love’s Beaumarchais are fun. Some, like Arnott (too old for his royal 20-year-old), Willette and Greg Michaels’ Morande overact. If it sounds like a mess, it’s a wonderfully attractive one thanks to Utstein’s set, Shep Kaufman and Ken Lennon’s lights and Jackie Hamilton and John Brandt’s knockout costumes.

Performances at 6240 Hollywood Blvd. on Thursdays through Sundays, 8 p.m. Ends May 31. Tickets: $10, (213) 871-1052.