Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy

One supposes we are now in the era where dramatic films from twenty years ago are fair game for broad spoofing, and I guess with its overheated tale of an adulterous affair gone mental, Adrian Lyne's 1987 hit, "Fatal Attraction," is as good a choice as any. In their re-examination of the movie as a sexist manifesto, writers Alana McNair and Kate Wilkinson (who also star in the two lead female roles) employ a Greek chorus as a means to explore the potboiler. Oh, and in the pivotal role of the cheatin' rapscalian, the production stars none other than '80s staple Corey Feldman.

Feldman is obviously being used due to his newfound celebrity (his appearance on "The Surreal Life," his participation in the Michael Jackson trial), but Feldman is and has always been a pretty adept actor, and though he tries too hard for laughs at times here, his presence is welcome. His sense of humor seems spirited, even when his own life is dragged into the proceedings (at one point, he grabs a newspaper with the headline "Corey Feldman Busted For Drugs").

Playing Michael Douglas (all the actors play the actors' names in the piece, not their characters), he works the actor's steely glint and posturing though somehow misses Douglas' guttural nature, which might have made his performance more fun. Wilkinson, despite choice passages, pretty much plays Anne Archer's wife role as a Stepford clone with no mind of her own, which gets old pretty quickly, but McNair is tremendous fun in the Glenn Close role. Unlike almost every other co-star, she underplays nearly every scene - and gets every single laugh she goes for. McNair is even funny in scenes she doesn't participate in; she's easily the best thing about this uneven mishmash of a play.

Director Timothy Haskell (who took the 1980s B-movie "Road House" to town a few seasons ago) stages everything keenly and neatly, though he would have been wise to tighten up the pace. Even at 70 minutes, certain scenes drag on, especially the Greek chorus bits, which amuse at first but become distracting, not to mention unnecessary. (Did anyone greet "Fatal Attraction" as a benchmark social film other than thrill-seekers waiting to see Glenn Close get it in the end?)

Some ideas work, such as the play's late-breaking kung-fu faceoff between just about the entire company, while others falter (Feldman's rendition of Styx's "Babe" to his spouse as a throwaway joke leaves one wanting to look at the floor during it). For those seeking a vulgar reprieve from serious thesping, the show seems to fit the bill nicely, even if it's something you might have seen in your college days, in a theater about one-fifth the size, and at a top price far less than $49.50.