‘Wandering’ Plumbs London’s Bawdy Side

Whether he is reinventing a classic or helming one of his own works, Philip Littell is one of the most challenging and innovative artists on the Los Angeles theater scene.

The original musical “The Wandering Whore” at the American Center for Musical Theatre has been written, directed and produced by Littell, and composed by Eliot Douglass, who also contributes piano accompaniment throughout the show.

A Stygian descent into 18th century London’s lower depths, the action perambulates through the city’s seamiest quarters, where “gay” men and women (period parlance for prostitutes) peddle their sexual services in a hellish round of moment-to-moment survival.

Littell himself plays a cross-dressing homosexual who frequents the trade. Appropriately bawdy and broad, the performers wallow enthusiastically in Littell’s vividly rendered sink hole of corruption. However, with the exception of Michael Bonnabell’s gorgeous tenor and a few strong character voices, the generally marginal singing is swallowed up in the poor acoustics.

Unfortunately, by sacrificing theme to ambience, “The Wandering Whore” fails to emotionally engage us. Provocative but oddly detached, Littell’s work examines his doomed outcasts like bugs under a microscope, showing few glimpses of any vestigial hope or humanity under their insectile rapacity.

* “The Wandering Whore,” American Center for Musical Theatre, Pacific Theatre Building, 6425 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Sundays, 8:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 6. $10. (213) 871-8082. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.