Sharp togs, sharp barbs: It must be ‘The Women’

Peau de soie pumps. Sexy chiffon chemises. Plumed hats worthy of Audubon Society endorsements. Hello, haute couture. In Theatre Neo’s audacious, ovary-to-the-wall staging of Clare Boothe Luce’s venomous 1936 comic play “The Women,” the Hudson Avenue Theatre has become a pristine Vogue magazine spread, where New York society dames have better turnout than a Balanchine ballerina.

Under Steven Benson’s crisp direction, 20 women pose, flaunt and -- oh, yes -- act up a storm playing 42 characters in nearly 200 costumes (Shon LeBlanc must have beads in his blood) and 35 wigs (Diane Martinous has never met a marcel wave she doesn’t like), spewing dialogue that stings and sings.

As witty today as it was then (save for the line “sprawling on the bed like a swastika”), this theatrical gem found film fame in 1939 with Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell (roles deliciously played here by Aimee Guichard, Hilary Hesse and Sarah Fairfax, respectively), under George Cukor’s well-manicured hands.

Plot -- a gossip-fueled, Arthur Schnitzler-like sexual roundelay -- sparkles timelessly: The upper crust misbehaves (cheating husbands; cheating and betrayed wives getting divorces), while the lower crust cackles, catering to this gilded-lily lifestyle. With Matthew Scarpino’s satiny sets and Ron Wyand’s Douglas Sirkian sound design helping to drive this purring -- catfight included -- machine, a fabulous time is had by all.

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‘The Women’

Where: Hudson Avenue Theatre, 6537 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood

When: Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.

Ends: Aug. 23

Price: $20

Contact: (323) 769-5858

Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes