How many times have you turned to a bona fide comedy for
laughs—Portland Center Stage’s recent take on The Importance
of Being Earnest, say—only to find mild amusement? It’s a
problem LastRites Productions looks to correct with The Wild World
of Batwoman, their giggly stage adaptation of an atrocious ’60s
superhero flick.
The plot is negligible, but it involves a stolen device the title
character (Bri Pruett, who’s sharp throughout, if a little one-note)
and her five Batgirls (criminally underused, especially Crystal
Roseboro and Mia Allen who offer signs of nuance in a production devoid
of it) must retrieve from the evil and mysterious Rat Fink (Peter J.
Lewis).
It’s silly stuff. The problem is, the folks at Mystery Science
Theater 3000 already bled this movie dry when they tapped it in the
early ’90s. By going head to head with MST3K, LastRites are
bound to look feeble in comparison. They’re not, of course. At its
best, the play works on the level of a drunken prank and is very
charming for that. But the likeability of everyone involved doesn’t
make up for the fact that, by and large, they’re working in the unfunny
tradition of dialect-mangling costume comedy (The Carol Burnett
Show, MADtv, ad infinitum, ad nauseam). Kitsch hasn’t been
this uncool since before it was kitsch.