Unabashed Celebration in ‘Puppetry’

These days the penis can’t get no respect. Health professionals label it toxic if not downright lethal. Prosecutors denounce it as a blunt offensive weapon. And those endless e-mail spam offers to enlarge it cast suspicion on even the most innocent exhibitionists.

Who can point with pride to manhood in such shriveling times? David Friend and Simon Morley, that’s who. In a shamelessly celebratory locker-room charade titled “Puppetry of the Penis,” these enterprising Aussies manage to make the penis user-friendly again through the power of laughter.

At the Coronet Theatre on Thursday, the start of an indefinite run, Friend and Morley stretched, twisted, bent and mashed what used to be their private parts into the delirious public “installations” (their word) previously on view in Melbourne, Edinburgh, London, Montreal, Toronto and New York.

A winking eye, the Eiffel Tower, a hamburger, the Loch Ness Monster, a turtle coming out of its shell: Enlarged by simultaneous video projection, Friend and Morley’s dexterity in what they call “genital origami” achieved a lunatic virtuosity through their hourlong set.

They did miss a few obvious tricks. Friend, for instance, inadvertently did a pretty good Capitol Records Tower (without the spire) just warming up. And you can blame their parents for the early surgery that prevented more voluminous effects. Size may not matter in this line of work, but yardage does.

Throughout, Morley adopted the air of a jaded tour guide while Friend excelled at parodies of slick sportscasters who describe athletic feats in hushed tones. And he grew positively glorious when approximating that inimitably Aussie state of blissed-out, beer-soaked pub dementia.

Stand-up comedian Alexandra McHale opened the evening with a very funny and raunchy half-hour catalog of contemporary obsessions. And--who knows?--maybe the liberated willy is about to join the list.

If so, Friend and Morley deserve a lot of the credit--or the blame. Laughing off all the taboos that keep a good man down, “Puppetry of the Penis” is a show for every male who ever played with it (and, guys, we know who you are) and every female who ever wished it were more, well, decorative (fess up, ladies). It will also inspire creative souls of any gender who have longed to find more uses for it than its highly limited normal functions (name more than three).

Obviously societal standards of good taste need to be, um, suspended for the event, and some conservative souls who didn’t cancel their subscriptions after Paragraph 2 of this review may wish that the ground would open at any moment and destroy all participants, ticket-holders and critics.

Wish away, but don’t hold your breath. If there’s one thing that Friend and Morley have proved in their four years of international show-biz success, it’s that a performing penis incontestably has legs.

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“Puppetry of the Penis” at the Coronet Theatre, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., L.A. Tuesdays to Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 and 9:30 p.m. Sundays, 7 p.m. $35.50 to $39.50. (310) 657-7377. Full frontal nudity; not recommended for children.