They say sex sells.
It must be true, because the first two weekends of Arena Dinner Theatre's new production, “Sex Please, We're Sixty,” are already sold out.
“I think the title is probably helping us sell tickets,” said director Brian Wagner.
But if you go, don't expect X-rated entertainment. “For the subject matter and the title, it's pretty tame,” Wagner said.
You can, however, expect to laugh. “Sex Please, We're 60” is an “American farce,” Wagner said, a “very funny show.”
Written by Michael and Susan Parker, the story centers around Mrs. Stancliffe's Rose Cottage Bed and Breakfast. Women return to the resort year after year, and next-door neighbor Bud (“Bud the Stud”) Davis believes they come back for annual liaisons with him.
“He tries to sleep with as many of them as he can,” Wagner said.
The plot thickens when Mrs. Stancliffe's neighbor on the other side, Henry Mitchell, develops a blue pill, “Venusia,” to improve the libido of menopausal women. Bud the Stud gets a hold of some Venusia and feeds it to his female friends, and then struggles to keep them all happy.
But the real fun begins when some of his female friends mix up the Venusia pills with Bud's Viagra, and he begins to experience menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, weeping and mood swings.
As a farce, the play depends on characters being played “pretty big and pretty broadly” for a heightened sense of comedy, Wagner said. It involves a lot of doors opening and closing, many entrances and exits as the six characters come and go from the stage, sometimes addressing the audience directly.
And although the situation is played to the extreme for laughs, “I think the humor in it is pretty universal,” Wagner said.
