THEATER REVIEW : Sprinkle’s Brave, Witty Journey to ‘Post-Post Porn Modernist’

Annie Sprinkle just may be the one for whom they coined the phrase “You’ve come a long way, baby.” The ex-porn star turned performance artist, whose “Post-Post Porn Modernist” opened Thursday to an overflow crowd at Highways, is best known as the gal who got the religious right all hot and bothered during the NEA wars. But she’s actually a brave and articulate woman whose liberating wit and wisdom have created a compelling show.

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and his cronies went after Sprinkle a couple of years ago because she does things like invite viewers up to look at her cervix during her performance. But Sprinkle’s message--about one powerful woman’s capacity to create and re-create herself despite pervasive misogyny--should probably have been the real threat.

OK, she does do some quirky things onstage, the infamous “Public Cervix Announcement” and a douche break included. But Sprinkle’s performance never is done in a titillating or gratuitous fashion. The nudity, unconventional acts and up-front talk about sensuality demystify and debunk taboos and false standards of sexual beauty.

“Post-Porn Porn Modernist,” directed by Willem de Ridder, is the story of how Annie Sprinkle came to be who she is. The performer’s show-and-tell format and chatty banter is accompanied by slides that track her evolution from shy, nerdy Valley girl Ellen Steinberg into a priestess of pleasure.

What makes the show are Sprinkle’s remarkable candor and her soft-touch irony--the traces of Ellen that linger on in Annie. During a passage in which she talks about her tenure as a sex worker, for instance, Sprinkle produces Ross Perot-style charts that quantify the extent of her labors.

In one of the performance’s most striking sequences, Sprinkle projects a series of “before” and “after” slides. The first shots show what we’d generally think of as unglamorous women. The second set of slides show the same women in full porn-star regalia. The point is that feminine “beauty” is a construct.

The show peaks early--before Sprinkle transforms herself yet again, from Annie to Anya, a New Age-type sex healer. Look out when the candles and incense come out, because she loses her sense of humor and the show deflates. There is, however, plenty to stroke your fancy until then.

* Highways, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica, Thursday-Friday, 8:30 p.m., Saturdays 8:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Sundays, 7:30 p.m. (June 20 is for women and men dressed as women only). Ends June 20. $12. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.