Review - Mae West and the Trial of Sex @ Walking Shadow Theatre Company

Courtroom drama interspliced with razzle dazzle — but how does this new work handle its themes?

Mae West and the Trial of Sex documents the morality craze of 1920s Broadway through its titular character’s salacious plays and subsequent obscenity trial. Drawn from true events, this new work clocks in at two and a half hours, and does not skimp on the details.

West’s story is certainly ripe for the stage, and the performance succeeds in both conveying her story and being not-boring. Unfortunately, it’s not as bold and impactful as it touts. What’s “bold” about the show comes exclusively from its subject material, and not the way it’s presented. If you didn’t know queer people existed before 1985, this might knock your socks off. West and her colleagues’ forward-thinking attitudes translate into an extremely textbook work in the ilk of Radium Girls.

Actually, I’d like to dig a little more into the Radium Girls comparison, and then convert it into an excuse to gush over one of my favorite shows. Radium Girls, like Mae West, is a quasi-documentary play where substantial action occurs via courtroom scenes. Radium Girls features a smart heroine who refuses to let the Man take advantage of her. She knows what’s right—and we in the audience sympathize with her, but know she can’t come out on top in the end. So it is with Mae. Emily A. Grozdik presents a lovely portrait of a complicated woman put down by circumstance. What the show falls short of is moving me. 

Which brings me to one of the best plays ever written, Paula Vogel’s Indecent. Indecent follows a Yiddish theatre troupe arrested for obscenity…for their portrayal of prostitution and lesbian love…in 1923, four years before West’s trial. In fact, it was the first kiss between two women on Broadway. (There’s a free trivia question for you!) It’s another story of many from this era of theatrical censorship. Indecent expands beyond the trial into a gut-wrenching tribute to the reverent human act of making theatre. While Mae West handles its respective trial(s) in more intricate detail, in my book it doesn’t cover any ground on its subject (moral censorship of theatre) that Indecent hasn’t already done. 

Of course, some may find it bad faith to criticize one play for being like another. Fair enough—all I can say is my experience through Mae West’s more grounded moments is I just wished I was watching Indecent instead.

The narrative’s unquestioning faith in West’s sainthood makes it clear the show is hoping to employ history firstly as an allegory today. That’s not to say West isn’t portrayed as a layered figure—but rather, the narrative is confident in the correctness of her position. All opponents to West are portrayed as sniveling, hunchbacked, and/or squeaky-voiced. It’s highly effective comedy. But in lengthier courtroom sequences, one starts pondering whether there might actually be some merit to certain detractor’s motivations. Sure, that whiny young playwright legally signed away his rights to financial compensation…but in another play, the injustice might be his lack of legal education to understand the contract he was manipulated into signing. Sure, the judges signing off on censorship are wrong, but it is true that West used salaciousness to drum up business… 

This isn’t to say that West comes across as unlikeable—to the contrary, she remains compelling throughout. But writer Heimbuch’s approach to history doesn’t allow for West to be wrong. Conceding her moments of duplicity might make her even more compelling, and remove the impression that writer and director are doing some moralizing of their own. 

The comedic faculties were strong across the board. I particularly enjoyed Neal Beckman and Kelsey Laurel Cramer, who defined each character with wit and persistence. What the show seems comfortable to gloss over is the drag queens left behind by the trial. The queens provide levity to the middle section, even if that levity is slightly-caricatured “flamboyancy” that plays for dated comedy. Leo, the narrative voice of the queens as a collective, warns West that if the show falls, she’ll be okay, but the queens will fall hardest. This tension is never really resolved. The show closes with a scene between Leo and Mae, where Mae helps Leo dress in drag, and the two sing together before the attention shifts to West for her closing moment. It’s an olive branch of sorts, a reassurance to the audience that even though Leo has fallen in precisely the way he foresaw earlier in the act, he is at peace with it. It’s an interesting choice for Heimbuch to include that earlier conversation but not engage thoroughly with that part of the story. Spinning it positively, this opportunity to engage further with themes of allyship could be highlighted in a future production. Assuming the worst, one might feel the drag queens are used by the narrative for their entertainment value but ultimately sidelined, just as occurred historically. 

I feel my grievances have been thoroughly aired. One of the marvelous things about taking shows to task is that seeing the show gave me the opportunity to think critically about it. It’s why I feel strongly about going to see shows, even when I’m not 100% sure I’ll love them. I’ve seen shows that were so awful or so outside my personal taste that I didn’t really have anything to say about them. But for me, Mae West hit that sweet spot of a show that was 

a) entertaining

b) flawed

c) thought-provoking because of it

Let’s end on a complimentary note: I loved the staging of this piece, brought to life by designer Sarah Bahr. Each actor had a little vintage-style vanity cubby on the side of the stage, complete with softly lit lamps and racks of tantalizing costumes (Mandi Johnson). It suited the world of the show perfectly, while also bringing the audience behind the curtain. It also facilitated the highly successful and highly frequent doubling of characters. This style of comedy can sometimes come across as gimmicky, but here it felt natural. That’s a testament to the actors, and the way they were directed.

Mae West and the Trial of Sex performs through June 22nd at the Crane Theater. Tickets and info available here.