SATURDAY'S VOYEUR: 25th ANNIVERSARY, Salt Lake Acting Company, 168 W. 500 North (355-2787 or 363-7522). Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes (two intermissions).
For its 25th-anniversary edition of "Saturday's Voyeur," Salt Lake Acting Company has come up with what amounts to a muddled "best-and-worst" montage.
THE WORST: Going back to its roots, this new production dips into several tasteless "Mormon-bashing" elements of show's formative years — back in the late 1970s, when it was mostly seen as an antidote to "Saturday's Warrior" (a production which does, indeed, lend itself to lampooning).
Is it necessary for what is nothing more than a musical revue to run on . . . and on . . . and on for nearly three hours? (They could have called it "Numb and Number.")
Several segments should have been dumped. Newcomers to the area may be thoroughly confused by some of the old political and social commentary.
The Joe Waldholtz-Enid Greene "Phatman of the Opera" bit was hilarious — in 1996. But now it's stretched way out of proportion, including the addition of a blimp-size daughter.
There are certainly some recent news events that are fair game for satire — the relentless brouhaha over the Main Street Plaza . . . Deseret Book's nauseating "What matters to you, matters to us" advertising blitz . . . the Nordstrom guessing game.
But why haul out last season's disgustingly crude "Vagina Monologues" sendup? It was bad before and just as bad now.
Then there are "The Homos and the Momos Can't Be Friends" (clever, but tasteless lyrics to "The Farmers and the Cowboys" from "Oklahoma!") and an embarrassing song-and-dance segment called "The Jew Game" (some sort of "un-baptizing" ritual to eradicate Jewish names from LDS temple records).
At least SLAC didn't resort to dragging out the elders dancing around in faux garments.
THE BEST: The ensemble is talented and energetic. About half of the cast plays multiple roles.
Michael Todd Behrens is over-the-top as Insane Man, a role encompassing several personas, culminating in the Totally Awesome Computer guy.
Jeanette Puhich is well-cast as Monica ("Touched by an Angel") and right-winger Gayle Ruzicka, with Rock H. White as a straight-laced Father, plus two characters in drag — Sheri Dew and Modene, a missionary's girlfriend.
Erin Hiatt, Arika Schockmel and Jeni Carver are at their best as, respectively, Deedee Corradini, Enid Greene and Margee Smith, Gov. Mike Leavitt's barber. The latter is another "who cares?" segment.
Annette Wright is hilarious as ex-porn czar Paula Houston and the conservative Mother.
Geoffrey Hemingway and Aaron Swenson are a couple of fledgling missionaries — Chad (struggling with same-sex attraction issues) and Lamar Takahashi, a former Jew from Kyoto.
Mark Chambers and Spencer Ashby play Darrell and Joel, a pair of gay, ex-ZCMI window dressers, drummed out of BYU's Young Ambassadors after an embarrassing "incident" in Amsterdam.
And Jason Tatom carries a lot of weight (literally) as Joe Waldholtz.
Most of the segments use Broadway tunes with humorous, topical lyrics.
I could be biased, but one of the best — to the tune of "Nothing Like a Dame" — rhymes "Deseret Morning News" and "we ain't got booze."
Music is provided by percussionist David Evanoff and keyboardist Jenny Floor, called the ACLU Band. They respond with expletives whenever someone on the Plaza bad-mouths the group.
Sensitivity rating: You have to ask? Plenty of vulgar, crude, tasteless "humor" with a handful of fairly clever bits thrown in. It will likely offend nearly everyone.
E-MAIL: ivan@desnews.com