THEATER REVIEW : Raw Talent of Naked Angels Delivers Provocative Show

The marquee in West Hollywood might be advertising a burlesque show: “Naked at the Coast.” Inside the Coast Playhouse, there is indeed nudity. But more provocatively there is talent--raw and polished, demented and celestial.

They call themselves Naked Angels and it’s past time this precocious New York theater company descended on the West Coast.

Naked Angels has grown from an underground group of relative unknowns into an astonishing play development company. Its 42 members include actors Mary Stuart Masterson, Fisher Stevens, Ron Rifkin, Joe Mantello, Rob Morrow, Marisa Tomei and Nancy Travis.

It’s difficult to imagine today, but in 1986 when self-christened Naked Angels (from a book on the Beat Generation) formed, none of the members were famous. At that time their ambition, as Stevens has explained, was simply: “ . . . find a safe place to fail.”

That place became a basement home near the Chelsea district of Manhattan. Working collaboratively (as well as for free), Naked Angels inspired several hit plays, including Jon Robin Baitz’s “The Substance of Fire” and Frank Pugliese’s Off-Broadway success “Aven’ U Boys.”

Yet few in Los Angeles have heard of the group, so this provides a welcome opportunity to sample their work.

The rapid-fire evening is composed of 11 short pieces performed impeccably by 16 company members. The lineup ranges from the profoundly disappointing--a self-consciously cute sketch by Peter Hedges, a David Mamet rip-off by Pugliese, an indifferent exercise by Nicole Burdette--through an impressively realistic but predictable portrait of the homeless by Pippin Parker. It concludes with the breathtakingly profound “Four Monologues” by Baitz.

The remaining works are by non-company playwrights invited to participate in the company’s occasional “issues projects” mini-festivals. Each proves riveting.

Craig Lucas’ “Throwing Your Voice” provocatively addresses human rights issues. Theresa Rebeck’s “Sex With the Censor” takes a scalpel to censorship. Terrence McNally’s poignant exploration of sexism opens with two nude males in bed discussing women.

Baitz’s grim Orwellian satire, “Coq Au Vin,” hauntingly proposes a totalitarian society forcing homosexuals to perform in carnival rites. His monologues profile a network Standards-and-Practices attorney, a librarian, a male dancer and a tormented woman (unforgettably performed by Cynthia Mace). Both works offer undeniable testimony that a major American playwright has come of age, thanks to a company of angels that provided “a safe place to fail.”

* “Naked at the Coast,” Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, Tuesday -Sunday, 8 p.m., Friday, 10:30 p.m.. Ends Sunday. $15. (213) 660-TKTS, (213) 650-8507. Running time: 2 hours.