THEATER REVIEW : This Adaptation of ‘Lulu’ Sometimes Misses the Point

Bad girls don’t go away, they just get retooled. “Lulu,” at the Hollywood Moguls Theatre, is a play with music about one of Western culture’s favorite vamps. And while the ambitious adaptation may not capture all of this nearly 100-year-old vixen’s complexities, it still tweaks the hypocrisies that society holds most dear.

The Lulu character first appeared in an unpublished 1895 drama by German playwright Frank Wedekind, who later rewrote the five-act work into the two less controversial but still provocative plays, “Earthspirit” (1895) and “Pandora’s Box” (1903).

The story centers on a seductress who wends her way through a series of lovers, often leaving their dead bodies in her wake. The men include her original guardian/lover, whose death eventually causes Lulu to be blackmailed and ruined.

Wedekind’s pre-Expressionist plays have been adapted, famously, in G.W. Pabst’s film “Pandora’s Box” and Alban Berg’s opera “Lulu.” There have been many stage versions--including Sharon Ott’s problematic production of Roger Downey’s smart translation/reconstruction at La Jolla Playhouse in 1988--although they haven’t often included songs as does this Fred Hartman/Michelle Truffaut adaptation (music by Frank Schader, lyrics and additional music by Lorraine Du Rocher).

As with Carmen, you can chalk up the enduring attraction of the Lulu story to the power of the central character. But to reduce Lulu’s appeal to sexuality is to miss Wedekind’s point, as this “Lulu” sometimes does.

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Like Strindberg, Wedekind was an anti-naturalist. Lulu isn’t merely erotic, but also the agent of a greater force of nature. Many men call her by different names and it doesn’t matter. She is whoever they want her to be, and also above and apart from such petty human desires and conventions. But this “Lulu” often flattens amorality into mere immorality.

Because it’s set in the Weimar period, this adaptation trades Wedekind’s critique of Victorian voyeurism for the familiar decadence of cabaret culture. There’s also a contemporary overlay, particularly in Act I, that does more damage than good.

Several numbers invoke 20th-Century musical idioms and are performed in a winking manner that borders on send-up. And Lulu herself (a competent but bland and unexceptional Kirsten Benton) lapses into speech patterns that belong more in Aaron Spelling’s world than pre-Hitler Germany.

The effect is probably meant to be Brechtian, but it’s reductive. Fortunately, the problem disappears during the more compelling, although overly long, Act II.

There’s also a crucial lack of sexual chemistry between key cast members in Truffaut’s efficient staging. And while many of the performers handle the acting tasks well enough, few of them take hold of the songs as ably as Wendy Worthington, whose resonant alto fills the house.

* “Lulu,” Hollywood Moguls Theatre, 1650 N. Hudson Ave., Hollywood . Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends Dec. 19. $15. (213) 660-TKTS. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.