‘A.K.A.’ Updates Wedekind’s Tale of a Predatory Scoundrel

In 1900, with “Spring Awakening” and one of two spidery “Lulu” plays behind him, bourgeoisie-bashing proto-Expressionist Frank Wedekind added the Marquis of Keith to his gallery of climbers, users and abusers.

In Shem Bitterman’s dogged, fairly diverting Wedekind adaptation “A.K.A.,” the phony marquis out to fleece the free world has been transformed into “the prince,” working one credit card against another, his mistress against his wife. The locale’s switched from Germany to Beverly Hills.

Subtitled “A Beverly Hills Musical Morality Tale,” the show’s the latest from Cornerstone Theater Company. “A.K.A.” clearly is the work of talented people. If it never quite takes off, Bitterman’s adaptation nonetheless finds some intriguing ways to bring a turn-of-the-century scoundrel into a strange new world.

Briefly: Grasping, enterprising Nick Carlisle (Christopher Liam Moore, looking like the love child of Dave Foley and James Spader) is on the hunt for investors to finance his grand boondoggle, the Beverly Emporium Theatricum of Art and Food. (Wedekind’s marquis was selling a project called the Fairyland Palace.) It can’t miss, Nick figures. “A.K.A.” follows the fortunes of the project, and the weasel behind it.

Bitterman piles on the referencing, especially in Act 1; everyone’s lining up lunch at the Grill or talking about the Viper Room. Director Bill Rausch and his designers work well enough within the drabbish confines of the Beverly Hills High School Salter Theater. It’s not a great site-specific space, though. Seeing “A.K.A.” here is a matter of watching Cornerstone, known for its site-specific work, putting its metaphoric head in the metaphoric lion’s mouth of Beverly Hills itself.

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* “A.K.A.: A Beverly Hills Musical Morality Tale,” Cornerstone Theater Company, Beverly Hills High School Salter Theater, 241 Moreno Drive. Thursdays-Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends June 19. $15. (213) 613-1700. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.