STAGE REVIEW : ‘Oh! Calcutta!’ Revue Still a Terrible Show

With its heh-heh-heh nudity and dirty jokes, “Oh! Calcutta!” immediately became a Broadway winner in 1969, despite repeated lashings by critics.

Tourists eager for an eyeful and an earful routinely put the musical revue on their list of things to do. The success of “Oh! Calcutta!” proved the notion that really bad theater could still make money as long as the public was intrigued by a gimmick.

That may still be the abiding idea behind the traveling show that settled into the Celebrity Theatre Sunday for two performances. Ticket-buyers, probably more curious than anything else, still turned up, and “Oh! Calcutta!” is still a terrible show.

At least when it opened, this collaborative effort--devised by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan and featuring uninspired, sexually oriented writing by the usually inspired likes of Samuel Beckett, Sam Shepard, John Lennon and Jules Feiffer--could, barely, justify itself as something of a comment on the sexual attitudes of the day.

Now, it seems strikingly dated and cliched. “Oh! Calcutta!” isn’t necessarily inappropriate (although the Jack raping Jill bit in the first act is creepily offensive), it’s worse--it’s artless, pointless and boring.

At Sunday’s matinee, the Mac Clarke-directed skits, ranging from a young couple having second thoughts about swinging to hi-jinks in a sexual experimentation lab done a la the Marx Brothers, thudded with dull, tired humor. And the softer, erotic ballets and ensemble dances were derivative and uninvolving.

Choreographer Cheryl Hartley’s non-Equity cast (Jon Chernes, Tracy Gilchrist, B. J. Grogan, Amy Harwood, Grace Little, Peter Mannion, Nancy Rollins and Michael Lee Walker, in various roles) did take off their clothes with some dexterity. Actually, the actors did try to instill this exhausted piece with a little vitality by assuming a dashing vaudevillian tempo, but to no avail.

Lewis Folden’s cart-and-carry set was functional but only that. Robert Hale’s lighting was most effective during the dance numbers when it was more muted; it was too glaring at other times.

‘OH! CALCUTTA!’

A Singer Entertainment Consultants Ltd. production of the musical revue devised by Kenneth Tynan. Directed by Mac Clarke. With Jon Chernes, Tracy Gilchrist, B. J. Grogan, Amy Harwood, Grace Little, Peter Mannion, Nancy Rollins and Michael Lee Walker. Choreography by Cheryl Hartley. Set by Lewis Folden. Lighting by Robert Hale. Musical direction by Barry Harwood.