A Little More, Please

Bite Me a Little at Post5 is fun, but it could cut deeper.

Achieving cult status doesn't happen overnight, particularly for those creative projects that fall within the so-bad-it's-good category. Sometimes a show needs a few years in the cellar fermenting to bring out the pungent qualities that make it an acquired taste, loved all the more for its quirks. That's almost the case for the self-aware vampire musical Bite Me a Little. First introduced as a staged reading at the Fertile Ground Festival in 2012, Arlie Conner's Bite Me is now enjoying a fully produced theatrical run at Post 5 Theatre. This time, it's a little dirtier, a lot louder and still appreciably rough around the edges.

Zena Mare Walas Zena Mare Walas

Looking for a venue to host his high-school reunion, the lovable dweeb Ben Davies (Brian Burger) books Dr. Hurt's Palace of Fun, unaware that it's actually a vampire night club and sex dungeon. Initially keen to win back his high-school sweetheart, Jenny (Chrissy Kelly-Pettit), Davies immediately becomes enamored with the club's sultry singer Raven (Sydney Weir, the only original cast member), and renounces Jenny as a tease in the show's catchiest musical number, "Fuck Jenny." Meanwhile, a parallel plot line follows detective Joe Brookhyser (Jim Vadala) on the case of a serial killer, leading him to the Palace of Fun, too.

There's plenty going on, but the runtime ends up feeling about 20 minutes too long. While Burger plays the nerdy Davies to a T-—complete with sweater vest, inhaler and spastic, Rick Moranis energy–—Vadala's character is a gumshoe trope played mostly for laughs, and those are hit or miss. Raven's breathy "Bite Me a Little" and Dr. Hurt's (Nathan Dunkin) bluesy "To Hell With Everyone Else" showcase Conner's talent as a composer and songwriter, but too many numbers fall flat both in tune and relevance to the plot. The main problem is the humor, though, with jokes that feel too obvious (references to True Blood) or too easy (jabs at Donald Trump). Where Bite Me redeems itself is with subtler dialogue between characters and by embracing its own campiness.

Photo from Post5 Photo from Post5

That's the point, anyway. This is not highbrow theater, nor is it trying to be. This is a vampire drag queen performing high-stepping musical numbers. It is Plan 9 From Outer Space meets Showgirls. In fact, Bite Me a Little might even benefit from eschewing the little decorum that it maintains. All it needs is some gratuitous nudity and a little financial backing for a few hundred gallons of spewing blood, and it could be the next cult classic.

see it: Bite Me a Little is at Post5 Theatre, 1666 SE Lambert St., 971-258-8584. 7:30 pm Thursday-Sunday. Through Dec 12. $20.

Bite Me a Little in 2012

Willamette Week

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.