SLY FOX

Dearest theater patron, do the words: bawdy, risqué, prurient, burlesque and ribald, raise your moral dandruff?

If they do, then caveat emptor.

The Ross Valley Players have hoisted their hitherto prim hemline, six inches above the knee, and are staging what could be their first PG-13 play of the decade.

Playwright Larry Gelbart, has unapologetically borrowed Ben Johnson’s rapacious swindler, miser and philanderer viz. Foxwell J. Sly, as found in VOLPONE, and transplanted him, and his trusty servant, upon the Barbary Coast: San Francisco in the 1880s.

Picture an era in San Francisco when the city was defined by its saloons, fancy opportunistic ladies, and corrupt municipal officials.

This play has the feel of Moliere, Aristophanes, Tom Delay and Willie Brown all rolled into one.

Bay Area comic David Alan Moss, one of the most prominent stand-up comedians in Northern California, has been rightfully cast as Foxwell J. Sly, a hustler and scammer, par excellence, who relies on the proclivities of his victims to wheedle and extract what he wants from them.

Observing the dictum of W.C. Fields: “You can’t cheat an honest man,” Foxwell J. Sly makes a comfortable living by cheating dishonest men.

While the rubes of San Francisco propitiate Foxwell with gold, obsequious offerings, and verily their wives, and he gives them false promises and keeps his eye on his escape route.

The play is pure comedy, unfettered by tugging, sinewy plot lines, carping, philosophical undertones, or overbearing thematic development.

If you are not afraid to let yourself publicly laugh at ribald, tawdry, burlesque humor, then this play is just the right medicine for the cold winter doldrums of Marin County.

Now, through February 19, you have the opportunity to chortle at the lechery, greed and corruption that have remained a part of San Francisco’s charm.

For tickets, call the box office at 415 456-9555 or check out the website at www.rossvalleyplayers.com

Jeffrey R. Smith is a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.