Women: As They Roar. . .or Choose Richer Over Poorer

“Let’s talk about vaginas,” Kristin Johnston says bluntly on the other end of the phone. Unapologetic, ready for whatever.

It was a dare, sort of. What Johnston really wants to talk about is Eve Ensler’s play “The Vagina Monologues,” one of the most forthrightly graphic pieces of literature ever to discuss the subject of women’s anatomy. Through more than 200 interviews with women, whose myriad voices the play assumes, Ensler discards the notion that talking about female genitalia is evil or even unpleasant and insists that the world would be a better place if women’s sexuality were held in higher esteem.

And she makes it funny, with topics like “If your vagina could talk, what would it say, in two words?”

Since Valentines Day 1998, “The Vagina Monologues” has been the focal point of a series of celebrity benefits designed to raise money to aid abused women. The first one, in New York, raised $150,000. The latest, sponsored by the Hollywood group Step Up Women’s Network, takes place in Los Angeles at the Wiltern Theatre on Wednesday night. A remarkable A-list of two dozen actresses and singers, including Winona Ryder, Calista Flockhart, Roseanne and Shirley Knight, have signed on to perform the short solos that make up the play.

Also among them is Johnston, the brazen alien-from-outer-space beauty on “3rd Rock From the Sun.” She’ll deliver a piece about “reclaiming” a four-letter word, unprintable here, that begins with C.

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“They sent me the monologue, and I read it, and I said, ‘Are you kidding? What is this?’ ” she recalls thinking when she received a copy of the script. But with the encouragement of friend Joe Mantello, who staged the play’s current off-Broadway production, Johnston saw Ensler perform the show solo in New York. After that, Johnston quickly signed on.

“It’s almost indescribable,” she says. “It’s an amazing rejoicing of femininity. There’s no male bashing, which I would hate, and it takes itself so lightly and yet so seriously.

“Women, even though we can rah, rah, burn all our bras, we’re still afraid of our sexuality. I left that theater with the message ‘Please don’t be afraid.’ ”

When Ensler, 46, performs the show, it has been described as close to stand-up comedy, a simple presentation that relies on perfectly timed delivery. “I bet you’re worried” is her opening line. And no doubt many in the audience are.

The direct, humorous approach to a topic--let alone a word--that is generally unwelcome in polite company requires a certain kind of attitude. And Ensler herself has plenty of that: “I think one of the things that happened the first go-around of feminism--which I think was a great failure--was we didn’t incorporate our sexuality in it. So it wasn’t experiential,” she said in a recent conversation. “If there is a new feminism, for me, I hope it is the feminism of the body, where the body catches up to the head.”

Abused as a child, Ensler now unabashedly talks about taboos. “Before I started doing the ‘Vagina Monologues,’ I’d heard for years that people who have been raped or abused will, as a result, live only kind-of lives. I don’t believe that anymore. ‘The Vagina Monologues’ is what told me that that was nonsense.”

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Ensler’s word is spreading. In addition to shows in which she performs--she will introduce each actress in L.A.--a nationwide coalition of volunteers has organized performances of “The Vagina Monologues” at 150 colleges this week for Valentine’s Day, which they’ve dubbed “V-Day.” Because Ensler believes in raising money for women’s causes with a big bang, she’s called on some big-name actresses to get her message across. And for recent shows in New York, London and now in L.A., they’ve agreed.

Why?

Lisa Bonet said she sees “Vagina Monologues” as an opportunity to lend her name to a cause she believes in. Bonet, who will perform a piece in which women recall their first experiences of menstruation, said she will be bringing her 11-year-old daughter to the show as a way of saying “Welcome to the club!”

Kathy Najimy (“Veronica’s Closet”) also spoke of her daughter as a reason for getting involved: “I’ve been a feminist my whole life,” she said. “And it’s become even more an issue for me now that I have a 3-year-old daughter. All I want is for her to feel so comfortable with her body.”

A friend of Ensler, Najimy appeared in the original V-Day celebration in 1998, which she remembers as “one of the best performing nights of my life.” A sold-out Broadway theater saw a cast that included Gloria Steinem, Whoopi Goldberg and Susan Sarandon perform the show.

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Gillian Anderson of “The X-Files” fame flew to London to do the show last year and will do it again at the Wiltern. When she first got the text, she says, it fell open to “The Vagina Workshop,” about a class for self-discovery. She said she agreed to perform only if she could do that piece. As it turned out, that was Ensler’s choice for her.

Kirstie Alley, star of “Veronica’s Closet,” will perform “My Angry Vagina,” which, among other subjects, talks about the indignities of visiting a gynecologist. “I could relate to it,” Alley says with her characteristic throaty laugh.

A newcomer to “The Vagina Monologues,” Alley responded to a query about celebrity involvement in the cause with defiance: “It has to be celebrities, because otherwise no one will listen. People will think it’s a bunch of angry feminists and no one will listen to it.”

Perhaps sounding a bit angry herself, she added, “They’re damn lucky to get my vagina making its debut on stage in Los Angeles!”

“The Vagina Monologues” is being presented this week at three venues:

* Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Wednesday, 8 p.m. A one-night benefit program with a celebrity cast that also includes playwright Eve Ensler is sponsored by Step Up Women’s Network. (213) 365-3500 or (714) 740-7878. Available tickets are $500 to $2,500.

* Glaxa Studios, 3707 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, Thursday through Saturday and Feb. 24 through 26 at 8 p.m. A V-Day College Initiative program sponsored by the Cal State Long Beach Women’s Resource Center and Self Magazine, with proceeds going to Sexual Assault Crisis Center and the Cal State Long Beach Women’s Resource Center. (310) 891-2887 or (562) 972-3593. $15.

* 24th Street Theatre, 1117 W. 24th St., Los Angeles, Thursday through Saturday, 8 p.m. A V-Day College Initiative program sponsored by USC School of Theatre and the Women’s Student Assembly. (213) 745-6515. Donations welcome.