The kiddies are back in school, but it's still summer camp time at Fort Lauderdale's Sol Theatre, where Charles Busch's Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is delivering a winkingly wicked, adults-only jump-start to the season. Busch, whose Broadway hit The Tale of the Allergist's Wife will kick off the Coconut Grove Playhouse lineup in a couple of months, cut his play-writing baby teeth on Vampire Lesbians in the mid-'80s. He wrote it as a late-night, deliberately outrageous East Village show, with a big leading-lady-in-drag role for himself. The play is flamboyantly at home in Sol's intimate living-room space, where even the bathroom (sporting a poster for the vampire movie The Hunger) goes with the theme of the evening. Gals in peril, men in skirts, beefcake in next-to-nothing: Vampire Lesbians of Sodom has it and celebrates it all.

In three brisk scenes, the camp-fest tracks a pair of warring vampires through history, sending up everything from biblical epics to old Hollywood to Las Vegas extravaganzas.

First, in the ''twin cities'' of Sodom and Gomorrah, a petrified Virgin Sacrifice (Daivd Tarryn-Grae) becomes the newest victim of a vampire known only (affectionately?) as The Succubus (Kala Kaminsky).

Next, in the Hollywood of the 1920s, noted stage actress Madeleine Astarte (Tarryn-Grae) arrives at the home of her nemesis, silent screen star La Condesa (Kaminsky), to do battle over another virgin and thwart a sneaky vampire hunter.

Finally, a Cher-like Madeleine, well preserved as only an undead gal can be, readies her new Vegas act while refereeing cat fights among her male dancers and saving herself from a ''cleaning lady'' who looks suspiciously like Succubus/Condesa.

Vampire Lesbians of Sodom is ripe with groan-inducing puns, nasty language and strong sexual innuendo, all delivered with over-the-top finesse. Director Robert Hooker hits the right notes with his voracious cast: You know the actors would be chewing the scenery, if only there were scenery to chew.

Tarryn-Grae brings both height and style to the role of Virgin/Madeleine, embracing and working every leading-lady cliché, exuding determination as though it were a pricey perfume. Love the sparkly lipstick.

Kaminsky, who has the big-and-bold thing down cold, plays Succubus/Condesa as though it, too, were a drag role -- just right, in this case.

The supporting players -- Jeison Tomi and Christopher Kauffmann as soldiers and dancers, Michael Burch as a hunky silent screen star with a secret (he's gay!) and a bare-chested dancer with an attitude, Kaitlyn O'Neill as a wannabe star and unwitting vampire blood donor, Jeff Holmes as a Louella Parsons-sized gossip columnist, Jim Gibbons as a butler with a killer past -- are equally happy (and effective) campers.

Produced as an end-of-summer fund-raiser, Sol's Vampire Lesbians offers discounts to get audiences into the spirit -- lower prices if you come in costume or wear glow-in-the-dark fangs, for instance. On Sundays, there are Bloody Mary fixings if you B.Y.O.V. (bring your own vodka).

Great theater, this isn't. But as a play that knows how to party, Sol's Vampire Lesbians is hot summertime fun.

EVENT DETAILS
Sol Theatre Project
1140 N. Flagler Dr.
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
(954) 525-6555

Performance times
08/21/2003 - 09/14/2003 8 p.m.
Thursday-Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday

Sol Theatre website
Payment Notes
$20 ($15 seniors, $12 students;
ask about various promotional discounts)

Fuente: The Miami Herald
Septiembre - 2003