Slut: Lewd from New York
Plus, a fine education
By Perry Tannenbaum

You probably thought the word applied to the tart who wears too little clothing and too much make-up, that sweet girleen who is both easy on the eyes and easy on the virtue. But thanks to the pioneering efforts of Ben Winters and composer Stephen Sislen, Slut is so much more. Slutting is now a verb for women and their promiscuous male counterparts. In the form of sluttitude, it verges on philosophy.

Best of all (or worst, if you're of a prudish persuasion) the current Actor's Theatre production affirms that there is a special time for sluts to gather, liquor up and exchange bodily fluids. This new holiday has its own anthem.

Live from New York ... it's "Slutterday Night"!

Tommy Foster, who was the angst-ridden hero of Jonathan Larson's semi-autobiographical Tick, Tick ... BOOM! when it premiered on Stonewall Street in 2005, has no artistic pretensions as Adam Patterson. But the self-proclaimed slut is not without ambition, striving to seduce every loose wench in Manhattan. Nor is his sluttitude without principle, since he devoutly keeps to his rule of never bedding any woman more than once.

At a certain point, the legendary Adam finds there are no new fields to furrow in his native isle. So he sets sail aboard the S.S. Donkeyballs, bent on spearing a piece of pussy at every beach and port-of-call the seven seas have to offer.

By the time Adam embarks, there's a tinge of sadness coloring his quest. His best bud Dan had pledged to join him, but he has fallen under the spell of aspiring rock star Delia before achieving sufficient sluttitude to fully commit to the code of the one-night stand.

When he's wearing his glasses, Dan is a sensitive, vulnerable soul whose dreams of becoming a physician ran into a roadblock when his ex-girlfriend dumped him on the eve of his medical exams. Glasses come off when he splits with Delia, and Dan transforms into a debonair serial seducer. Not much more we can say about Dr. Dan, although he is clearly the deepest of Winters' creations.

The others are quickly summed up in a phrase or less: Veronica, the bimbo; Janey, a bride-to-be train wreck in progress; J-Dogg, an incurably white hip-hop wannabe; Doug, sensationally drunk when at all vertical; and Lilly, the genial bartender, patiently carrying a torch for Adam.

Now of course a rogues' gallery this debauched merits an unabashed rock score. Aside from Dan and Delia's love theme, "A Girl That You Meet in Bar," and the "Slutterday" anthem, Sislen hooks us with a few other nuggets. These would be "Lower the Bar," Lilly's sage counsel on curbing our expectations, and a sequence of laments by J-Dogg and Janey -- his about herpes and hers about cross-county dating in Long Island.

Typified by such couplets as "When you're down in the gutter, Even poop tastes like butter," Winters' lyrics reward listening even more frequently than the music. What's really impressive is the zest this stellar cast puts into this silliness under newcomer Kerry Ferguson's razor-sharp direction.

A college classmate of both Winters and Sislen at Washington U in St. Loo, Ferguson taps some additional talent from her current teaching gig over in Spartanburg. Tory Macomson, a recent Wofford College grad, brings a lowkey coolness to Delia that actually brings a modicum of suspense to the climactic moments of Slut -- will the ambitious rocker sleep with her trashy agent in her pursuit of fame and fortune? Liz Hutchens, a rising senior at Wofford, applies just the thinnest layer of world-weariness to her bartending chores as Lilly and absolutely torches her vocals.

Jon Parker Douglas, via UNC Greensboro, is no less eye-opening in his Actor's Theatre debut, nailing both the Clark Kent and superstud facets of Dr. Dan. Candace Neal and Elizabeth Simpson, slightly better known to dedicated Charlotte theatergoers, surface repeatedly -- and effectively -- after being discarded as Delia's bandmates.

Ryan Stamey, a prince of physical comedy excess, most memorably in ATC's The Great American Trailer Park Musical, gets to shower his super-amped energy on multiple cads, including J-Dogg, Janey's short-term spouse, and Delia's lechy agent. Stan Peal tops off the buffoonery, performing in an alcoholic haze most of the evening as Doug or Adam's goofball boatswain. Briefly, he gets to focus his eyes as Janey's dad, giving the newlyweds his course on "True Love."

Not exactly as Bing -- or even Elvis -- would have phrased it.