Review: THE LOST VIRGINITY TOUR at Best Medicine Rep

In Cricket Daniel's The Lost Virginity Tour, a perky light comedy produced by Best Medicine Rep, a quartet of young senior ladies take a road trip from their Arizona condo community to re-visit the locations in which each lost her virginity. The play can be a bit sitcom-ish at times, but the women's differing experiences in the past wind up strengthening their friendships in the present and for the future.

Tracy Diibon Coffey (Viola) performs her character in such an abusive and bullying manner that the play gets off to an unpleasant start. Unable to speak to her friends without insulting them, Coffey overdoes this so much that an audience cannot at first relax and be drawn in to the women's lives. Nowadays, many theatregoers look to a light comedy to get away from abrasive, verbally abusive bullies. The playwright, of course, planted this, but Director John Morogiello lets it flourish for perhaps a bit too long. Fortunately, the three other characters on the eponymous tour eventually balance the ugliness of Coffey's portrayal of “friendship.”

Jill Vanderweit tells Kitty's lost virginity story of classism and parental authority with many fussy gestures and melodramatic intonations. Liz Weber plays Rita's very funny story to the audience instead of to her fellow characters. Coffey, finally in Act II, experiences Viola's genuine emotions in the reliving of her character's troubling story. Her realistic rendering of negative memories provides some of the truest moments of The Lost Virginity Tour. Crystal Henry Arful-Addoh enacts Elaine's story with the greatest simplicity. Her welcome naturalness makes her tale a high point of the play.

Daniel has embedded unique and interesting details within each woman's story: Elaine seeks a time capsule near a Colorado cabin; Viola recalls the thrill of instantly locking eyes with the handsome friend her cousin brought to an Italian family wedding; Kitty revels in the memory of her time on the beach with the life guard in Hatteras; and Rita's uproarious reminiscence involves lace underwear and a fire extinguisher. What Morogiello and three of the actors miss is how little “acting” is called for by Daniel's script. Nevertheless, laughter prevails in The Lost Virginity Tour despite the unintentional undermining.

Douglas Becker's projections of post cards of tour locations are all the setting necessary to charmingly suggest each place. The images add authenticity to the road trip notion; such a trip might really be an entertaining thing for any quartet of young senior ladies.

The Lost Virginity Tour, which is one hour and 50 minutes long, runs through March 29 at The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh St., Bethesda, MD (about a 15 minute walk south of the Bethesda Metro station).