Frank Cwiklik, who, the program reports, “adapted, designed, manhandled and directed” this giddy production just in time for Halloween, sets out to exploit the movie’s status as the worst of the worst with satire, video montages and “Mystery Science Theater”-style jokes. Buried deep below the layers of knowing humor, however, is an earnest appreciation. For one thing, this show, at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, remains pretty faithful to the film. It pays homage as much as it mocks.
There are nicely larky scenes in which actors try to outdo one another in terrible line readings, but there are also some attempts to update the material, replacing the down-and-out low-budget Hollywood glamour with energetic and theatrical downtown silliness.
