“Deep Throat Sex Scandal” Opening Night: Alec Tomkiw, Bart Tangredi, Veronica Hart, Dr. Susan Block, Natasha Charles Parker, Marc Ginsburg, Michael Rachlis, Herschel Savage. Photo: Pedro Z

Deep Throat is a seminal work—in every sense of the word.  Meeting the first definition, “highly influential in an original way,” the 1972 feature film had a seminal impact on the sexual revolution of the 1970s, sparking it’s ‘porno chic’ wing, important Free Speech court cases, Watergate informant code, feminist polemics, various ongoing scandals, and motivating millions of otherwise savvy women to check their tonsils for a clitoris.

As to the second definition of seminal, “of, relating to, conveying or denoting semen,” well, Deep Throat is all about blowjobs.  At least, it’s mainly about blowjobs.  Unlike most blowjob flicks before and since, this one is a full-length feature with a fairly coherent story, intentional comedy, fleshed out characters, decent acting and even a script.  And then there are the loads of thick creamy semen shooting all over ecstatic female faces, and did I mention blowjobs? Yes, it’s quite seminal in every sense.

Going back to the first definition, Deep Throat—made on a mob-financed shoestring of under $25,000 and going on to gross upwards of $600 million—is currently experiencing a sort of renaissance around its 40^th anniversary, with various new movies being released, including Lovelace starring Amanda Seyfried, (which opened the Sundance Film Festival to mixed reviews) and the upcoming Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story, both based on Deep Throat’s notoriously abused and confused female star who became the most famous porn performer of all time, though this was her only feature film.  Several other TV movies (including one in which I participated that aired on E!) have tried to tell the Deep Throat story, mostly centering on Lovelace’s conflicting accounts of her experiences at that time.

But what about the film’s other star?  After all, with any deep throater cums a deep throatee, and in this case, that would be the flamboyantly mustachioed and indefatigably hard Harry Reems.  Perhaps the most exciting, amusing and culturally meaningful offering in the current crop of Deep Throat docudramas and spin-offs is not another film, but a wonderful theatrical play by Dave Bertolino, The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, now in performance at the Zephyr Theater in West Hollywood (purchase tickets here). Ingeniously, Deep Throat the play has Reems, not Lovelace, tell its story.

The Deep Throat Sex Scandal also tells Lovelace’s tale, with the ambivalence and complexity it deserves, interweaving the stories of some of the other main players, including the director Gerard Damiano, Reems’ lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and others.  But its main narrative is that of this wannabe actor/pornstar/everyman who almost got sent to prison for a very long time for nothing more than receiving a consensual, on-set blowjob. This was the first time that an actor had been prosecuted by the federal government on obscenity charges.   As Harry’s tale, it is a quintessentially American story about the long, hard, ongoing fight for our First Amendment against the nefarious, well-funded forces of Puritanical hypocrisy.  In a broad sense, it is the story of a multitude of sexual freedom fighters—who really set out to be lovers, not fighters—including my beloved husband Max who was imprisoned for publishing obscenity (now considered art, having been reprinted in chic magazines and sold in museum gift shops) a few years after Harry Reems’ Ordeal.  Yes, Lovelace wrote a book by that name, but Reems was also abused—by the government officials who went after him like a criminal.

So I was happy to accept Dave’s invitation to broadcast live from the west coast premiere of The Deep Throat Sex Scandal (and no, unfortunately, he didn’t pay me to write this glowing review).  First I watched the play, a delightful, insightful, well-acted, humorous and uplifting multimedia presentation that is a little erotic without being xxx-rated.   The sexiest part (spoiler alert!) is probably where the actors sync their performance to the film being projected behind them.  That and the moment where Chuck tells Linda to practice her Deep Throat on him…under the table in Howard Johnson’s.

Like all works of art, it takes license with history. For instance, why are the actors sporting hairless genitalia when nobody shaved back then, not even porn stars? Check out the original Deep Throat for a jungle of pubic hair.  Harry was as hairy between his legs as he was under his nose, and Linda was no baldy.  But for the most part, the play is historically authentic, emotionally moving and very entertaining.  The ensemble cast is marvelous, with young mainstream actors stripping down both physically and emotionally to play the roles of old-time porn performers, while older adult stars show off their considerable thespian talents in some of the key character roles.

Plus its politics are in the right place.  The main theme of The Deep Throat Sex Scandal is the importance of Freedom of Speech, which includes Freedom of Expression, and is just as relevant as ever.  Pornographers are still being arrested and convicted for nothing more than making movies about forms of sex that some people find disgusting, and Freedom of Speech is still under attack.  It’s a galvanizing play, and I highly recommend it to all my readers, viewers, listeners, friends and family…if your family can handle it.  And of course, everyone must be over 18.  It’s not hardcore, but there is full-frontal nudity, both male and female.  Get the kids a babysitter, see the play and then get a room!

Right after the play, I entice the members of the cast, creators, crew and audience over to my microphones and we go deeper into The Deep Throat Sex Scandal…

FEATURED GUESTS

Bruce Vilanch:  Well-known for his unique look and style, as well as his talent as a writer, actor and as the scribe behind the Academy Awards and “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour,” among other household titles, Bruce is one of The Deep Throat Sex Scandal’s cameo guest stars this week, masterfully portraying the priggish, prudish and somnambulant Tennessee judge who legalistically reams Harry Reems in his deep Southern courtroom.  What’s a nice Hollywood guy like Bruce doing in a play about porn?  The same thing Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson were doing when they came out in support of Reems: defending Freedom of Speech, without which even nice Hollywood guys could go to jail just for acting in something some people find disgusting.  “A blow for free speech or a speech for free blow?” quippeth Bruce.

Bruce Vilanch, Dr. Suzy, Sally Kirkland at The Deep Throat Sex Scandal. Photo: PZ

Sally Kirkland:  A fellow Philly girl and the Golden Globe-winning, Academy Award-nominated star of the “Sexual Revolution of the Arts,” Sally was fully nude for the entire length of the off-Broadway production Sweet Eros in 1968, popped out of a cake at a birthday party for Andy Warhol, appeared in several Roger Corman films and Shakespeare in the Park.   She is hilarious as the snarky, bawdy Deep Throat ticket seller. [Bit O’ Deep Throat trivia: Annie Sprinkle was a real-life Deep Throat ticket seller, then became Gerry Damiano’s mistress just before she became a porn star, then an artist (my husband Max being her first publisher), now a post-porn performance artist.]  Sally reminds us of the cultural significance of Deep Throat, that everyone who was anyone saw it, from Jackie O to Spiro Agnew.

Marc Ginsburg:  Since The Deep Throat Sex Scandal is told from Harry Reems’ point of view, the man who plays Harry has to carry much of the play.  That man is Marc who does a magnificent job of playing this likeable, naive and very horny dude with a big hairy ‘stache who suddenly finds that he is the “poster boy of the sexual revolution” and then a wanted man.  Though Harry Reems himself—born Herbert Streicher, now a retired real-estate agent—has not lent his support to the play, Marc plays him as a real hero.  During our interview, Marc opines that if any actor is honest, he has to admit to being at least a bit of an exhibitionist.  Less interested in being a star than in acting in great roles, this isn’t the first time that Marc’s been nude onstage. It’s all part of the actor’s craft, as he sees it.  In one of the final scenes in The Deep Throat Sex Scandal, he stands stark naked before the audience, but it’s his emotional exposure more than the physical that hits home.

Natasha Charles Parker:  Linda Lovelace, the focus of so many bio-pics, plays more of a supporting role in The Deep Throat Sex Scandal. But it is a critical role that is played with nuanced flair by the lovely Natasha who speaks with me about the challenges of playing the most famous porn star in history who later said she was forced and beaten and became an anti-porn crusader.  Playing Lovelace also requires nudity (none of it gratuitous!) which was another challenge for Natasha…at first.  She got used to it once she realized that  “being naked is just another costume.”  We’re pretty pro-porn and certainly pro-Free Speech, but we’re also against domestic violence like Lovelace apparently experienced.  Speaking of which, here in Bonoboville, we’re all excited about participating in Eve Ensler’s One Billion Rising campaign, inviting women and men around the world to rise up, dance and take a stand against rape and violence, with our Lupercalia Rising event on 2/16/13.

Veronica Hart:  This is the second time that the multi-talented and forever gorgeous AVN Hall of Famer and adult film star, Veronica Hart, aka Jane Hamilton, has graced my broadcast (the first being Heroes or Outlaws?), and I’m delighted to see her again, having missed her at my IASHS honorary PhD presentation at the Erotic Heritage Museum (with whom she’s going to China next month).  Veronica has made a name for herself in the mainstream world playing a judge in Boogie Nights (as well as being the inspiration for the lead character of Amber Waves), so it’s no surprise that she can act the pants off her fellow thespians—sometimes literally—in The Deep Throat Sex Scandal. Like Harry, she explains why, as a young aspiring actress, she got into porn: “I got to act, I got to have sex, and I got paid!”

Herschel Savage:  Another adult film star (Debbie Does Dallas, among many others) who started in the mainstream theater, studying acting under renowned drama coaches Uta Hagen and Stella Adler, I last saw Hershel at my Eros Day X Orgy for Obama.  He does a great job playing the ever-resourceful Deep Throat director Gerry Damiano and Reems’ lawyer, none other than Alan Dershowitz of OJ fame.  In our interview, Herschel tells me that his life happened much like Harry Reems’ did… a nice, horny Jewish boy gets asked by chance to do a “fuck film”, and he happens to do it well. The rest is porn history.

David Bertolino: This is the man who made it all happen, the writer and producer of The Deep Throat Sex Scandals.  From running horror amusement parks to writing a play about porn, Dave may have penned his script in a suite on Waikiki Beach as opposed to an austere writer’s garret, but that doesn’t make it any less a labor of love.  This is Dave’s second time on my show (on his first, Kegel Tug-O-War, he brought R.A. Mihailoff, Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre III).  We talk about how oddly American it is that all that horror, death and destruction is considered “family fun,” yet a blowjob is not just “adults only,” but subject to prosecution and persecution.  To keep it feeling real, Dave has hired protestors to stand outside the Zephyr with placards saying “God Hates Porn,” just as the original Deep Throat promoters had done, to attract attention.

Jerry Douglas:  Experienced in both adult films and theater, Jerry pulls it all together in his skilled and very sensitive direction of The Deep Throat Sex Scandals.  When I ask him the difference between “adult” and “mainstream” acting, he barely hesitates before saying there is none.

Alec Tomkiw:  Playing the douchebag we love to hate, Alec sulks and scowls through the play as Lovelace’s abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, who apparently had a cuckold fetish he couldn’t handle plus a bad anger management problem. Alec’s actually a very nice guy, which is striking in the interview, all that glowering in the play. I guess that’s why they call it acting.

Michael Rachlis:  Along with fellow cast members, Michael isn’t afraid to let it all hang out in front of a live audience. That takes balls… and we see those balls. Ok, let’s not get hung up on the nudity (“hung? Hmmm…); let’s focus on the acting.  Mike’s another fine actor, and totally open.  In fact, he admits to enjoying porn (who doesn’t?), and Michael’s mom even shows up at this performance to see her son play a porn star. Wow.  See, I told you this was a family show…for some families.

Bart Tangredi:  Did you know that before the infamous Charles Keating served his country defrauding tens of thousands in the 1980s Savings and Loan Scandal, he was busy making the world a better place for democracy by encouraging and supporting the prosecution of “dangerous criminals,”  that is, actors in adult films?  Another villain to sneer at, but at least in real life, Keating is in jail now. And in real life Bart, who plays Keating and several others, is a generous, kind soul and talented thespian.

Some Notable Audience Members:

Georgina Spelvin:  Though she’s just a member of the audience for this performance, Georgina is one of the brightest stars of the evening, another “porno chic” icon, the living legendary leading lady of the classic The Devil In Miss Jones, another Damiano production from the Golden Age, in which she co-starred with the one and only Harry Reems, as well as the charming author of “The Devil Made Me Do It.”

Roger Corman:  Another living legend, this Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Award-winning film producer, director and actor is mainly here to see his old friend Sally Kirkland do her comical cameo, but also in support of Free Speech, a principle he has long upheld.  He remembers seeing Deep Throat with his wife Julie around the time everyone was seeing it.  Along with The Devil in Miss Jones, it was the date night porno movie to see.

Imtiaz Waris, a friend of ours and Veronica Hart’s (who just called in on our Sex In China show last Saturday) is here with sex therapist and filmmaker Moushumi Ghose.  Both enjoy the play for the sex revolution history it imparts.

Special mention to Frank Blocker who is spellbinding as Federal prosecutor Larry Parrish, the southern-styled Eliot Ness of smut who persecutes our Harry.

During the broadcast, we give a shout-out to another one of our old porn star friends, Ron Jeremy, a close consultant to the play from its inception, who is currently recovering from surgery in Cedars-Sinai.  Get well soon, Ron! Deep Throat (the play) awaits your return, arms–and mouths–wide open!

See the Free Pix page.  Video coming soon to DrSuzy.tv