‘Strip’: Problematic More Than Political

Raelle Tucker conceived “Will Strip for Food,” at the Glaxa Studios, to confront negative images that are “ingrained so deeply into popular culture that most women who work in the sex industry are forced to conceal their jobs from relatives, business acquaintances, friends, even lovers,” according to the program notes.

Created and presented by women who have worked as strippers, this overlong and problematic piece may find the writers’ sociopolitical intentions perversely overshadowed by its flashing fannies, brazenly displayed crotches and bare breasts. The variety of birthday suits is the production’s strong suit--not its unfocused, heavy polemics.

One suspects that at least some theatergoers aren’t there just for cultural enlightenment, but the writers don’t acknowledge this possibility, as in the humorous approach of the unabashedly nudie musical, “Naked Boys Singing!”

Director John DiFusco’s lascivious staging gives us five distinct voices--a Southern belle (Beth Bates) who bolstered her self-esteem during her divorce by getting breast implants; a young actress (Christina Bebes) who feels the goddess in all women; a UCLA drama grad (Sera Gamble) who has learned how to walk in 7-inch platform stilettos and properly shave her bikini line; a Mormon (Angie Gibbs) now ready to hand up her G-string; and a free spirit (Tucker) who was brutally raped by her first boyfriend when she was 12.

The women talk about their anger as men become “walking ATM machines” and their eventual understanding that these men are needy, repressed, “confused beings”--which gives the women a degree of power. They rail against the strip club management, gasp at the good money nights and grouse about those self-image-destroying bad money nights.

The performers do their solo strip routines, but the dancing isn’t sensually erotic.

Joe DeSantis’ fittingly tawdry set includes a pole, used to great effect by Tucker.

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* “Will Strip for Food,” Glaxa Studios, 3707 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends March 13. $15. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.