‘Sex’ and the City

After an off-Broadway run in New York in May, Sandra Tsing Loh has brought an L.A. version of “Bad Sex With Bud Kemp” to the Tiffany Theater in West Hollywood, where the show began a six-week run Monday night. Through her witty radio commentaries (“The Loh Life,” heard on KCRW-FM 89.9) and books (the essay collection “Depth Takes a Holiday” and last year’s novel, “If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home by Now”), Loh has become one of L.A.’s more incisive humorist/sociologists--whether she’s chronicling age, Ikea furniture or the pathological need to have box seats at the Hollywood Bowl.

“Bud Kemp” is about dating, mostly, and starts with the nightmarish 31st year in Loh’s love life (references to Long Beach, the Valley and the 405 are designed to give the show its localized feel). Ultimately, the hour-plus experience feels less satisfying than the versions of Loh on the written page or on the air. As she takes the audience through her misadventures with men (and there’s a depressingly varied assortment of non-catches out there), the material begins to feel thin, stretched beyond even Loh’s considerable capacity to analyze the interpersonal.

It’s not that Loh isn’t still funny; to borrow a line from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” she is expert at reducing someone to a cultural stereotype, and “Bad Sex With Bud Kemp” is full of them. There’s Tony the Pony, a dense Brooklyn boxer/boy-toy, and Robert Blair, a great character, the Yale-educated architect with the Gorgonzola cheese and the taste in opera and the perfect Hancock Park house (“Robert Blair is in move-in condition!” Loh proclaims).

But no matter how earnest the effort here (and her presentation is awfully earnest), Loh can’t make “Bad Sex” transcend the cleverness of her best lines. It’s a writerly show--too writerly, in fact--the words so carefully chosen, the lines so well-sculpted that it’s like admiring the toned body of an otherwise asexual gymnast.

Adding needed whimsy are Kevin Adams’ stark, lime-green set and David Schweizer’s direction. Set pieces slide out of walls and glide down from the rafters. They’re punch lines themselves, in an evening that has many good jokes, if not memorable moments.

BE THERE

Bad Sex With Bud Kemp, Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, (310) 289-2999. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends Nov. 15. $25-$32.50. Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes.