Sometimes the experience of being with an audience that is largely half your age and that knows not only more than you do about what we are about to see but knows every line and situation as if it was “Casablanca” can be amusing as well as eye-opening. Such was the case with me and my companion at the press preview of Cruel Intentions, a stage adaptation by co-creators Jordon Ross and Lindsey Rosin of the cult 1999 film that is now entertaining its fans at (le) Poisson Rouge, a nightclub in Greenwich Village. The experience, most of it really good and definitely exhilarating, began even as we approached the club on Bleecker Street a good half hour before curtain time to see a long line stretched down the street waiting for the doors open. Many of the seats inside are on a first-come, first served basis; others can be reserved. The word was evidently out before the reviews that this production (after its debut in L.A. in 2015 and a remounting in 2016) was rekindling the same vibes that made it a hit film and an unexpected phenomenon with young audiences almost a generation ago. We shared a table with two fans who knew every word, song and scene like we knew “Casablanca.” Although the film was inspired by the classic 1782 French novel “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” (itself the source for a number of both film and stage adaptations), it tapped into the pop culture of teens at the time and catapulted the career of a young Reese Witherspoon. What it also did was to make its story about sex, seduction, deception, and cruelty relevant to a young audience by setting it in the present time and in and around an upper East Side prep school. The plot about two diabolical step siblings who set out to deflower and defame schoolmates hit a chord. Speaking of chord, the film was filled with pop and rock hits of the time—a perfect segue for the stage adaptation which has added more pop tunes of the time as well as including those already on the film’s soundtrack to further engine the characters and narrative. Here are a few: “Lovefool,” “Just a Girl,” Only Happy When It Rains,” and “Bittersweet Symphony.” It you get it, you got it. Not that you could hear most of the lyrics from the cheering of recognition from a packed room (including standees) of each iconic song (don’t ask) and each sexy situation. More importantly, director Lindsey Rosin and choreographer Jennifer Weber put their talented company through their paces in a show that moves with the fury of a hurricane. More a concert staging than a fully conceptualized show, Cruel Intentions, nevertheless, is performed with a terrific band on a small stage that gets plenty of action, often spilling out into the audience. While shadow hanky-panky and discreet nudity are cleverly displayed, the trendy couture designs also reveal plenty about the characters. Among the many standout performers who revel with expressive abandon in the sex-capades are a seductive Lauren Zakrin as the conniving Kathryn and the hard body Constantine Rousouli, as the licentious, hard-hearted Sebastian. Good voices, great bodies, and amusingly insinuating performances are factors that make Cruel Intentions an entertaining variation on those liaisons of lore.
