Bare Stage (2004)

The wayward talent of pornographer David Stanley reaches something of an apotheosis in "Bare Stage", a lengthy Vivid porn release performed entirely as a theatrical play. The auteur's penchant for black humor and facetiousness here will be hard to take unless you're already familiar with his numerous Vivid and Wicked pictures.

Randy Spears introduces the show as a stage manager for what unfolds like a high school production (but with adult cast, pun intended) of threadbare financing. Props and some backdrops are beyond cheap and phony looking, and the entire cast is encouraged to overemphasize their lines as if hoping a Charles Ludlam or Charles Busch is in the audience scouting new talent. I had a great time (not to say a gay old time) watching the nonsense unfold, and it intensifies my "what if?" wonderment about whether Stanley might have tried harder in real life and attained a mainstream writing & directing career rather than toiling in the porno vineyards all these years.

Ostensibly a Savanna Samson vehicle from Vivid, SS does a fine job with a Southern accent as the proverbial country girl going to Hollywood to become a star. Her roommate and eventual manager Lezley Zen is even better, and their corny adventures (all enacted on stage) are amusing thanks to fine acting as well as extremely clever Stanley dialog. His use of period jargon should have been saved for a "real movie" (or play), but is so much better than what usually passes for an Adult script that I highly recommend it.

Supporting cast has fun both in sex scenes and comedy material, notably Voodoo in high spirits as an unscrupulous Hollywood producer, Eric Masterson as his "I wanna direct!" underling, and even the director Stanley himself as a weird henchman named Crazy Andy. There's a gangster subplot essayed, in NonSex role for a change by Tony Tedeschi, and Voodoo's better half Nicole Sheridan has the sexiest turn of all.

Definitely a must-see for jaded Adult Cinema fans -I'm surprised this title is not better known.