Comments (0) BEST ARGUMENT FOR THE BLACK BOX - 2005

Nearly Naked Theatre at Phoenix Theatre's Little Theatre

They're ambitious, giving us the naughty fun of The Rocky Horror Show and the deeply troubling misogyny of Hurly Burly in the same season. And they're showy as heck, offering up French drawing-room comedy with Les Liaisons Dangereuses and revisions on Christopher Marlowe with E2: A Heretical Adaptation of Edward II. But mostly, what Nearly Naked Theatre is is a whole lot of fun to attend, and not just because they manage to work dangling penises and curvy hooters into every single thing they stage. Anyone wondering if the time for oddball, black-box theater has come and gone need only attend a couple of Nearly Naked shows -- which, by the way, are seen these days on the stage of a children's playhouse at one of our larger Equity theaters. We can't think of a better argument that proves that black-box theater -- at least when it's as good as Nearly Naked tends to be -- is here to stay.