Mother Goddamn’s Dinner Party

The Shanghai Gesture has a great backstory—the 1918 play by John Colton was a scandalous hit of its era (last seen on Broadway in 1926) and the central role of the Chinese madam “Mother Goddamn” is so juicy Bette Davis named her autobiography for her, though she never played the part. The Mirror Repertory Company offers ethnically correct casting in this play about prejudice and oppression: charismatic star Tina Chen plays the central role.

At its best, the revenge melodrama evokes a dark blend of Durenmatt’s The Visit with Madam Butterfly.

Unfortunately, while the beautifully turned out production never bores, it never entirely convinces, either. Its overheated plot twists feel contrived and dated.

Mother Goddam hosts a major dinner party at her elegant brothel on Chinese New Year’s Eve, the day all debts must be paid. Japanese Prince Oshima (an elegant Marcus Ho) plans a rendezvous with Poppy (Sabrina Veroczi), an amoral English flapper he’d met in Paris the year before. The point of the mysterious dinner party, to which wives are also summoned, has something to do with businessman Sir Guy Charteris (Larry Pine).

Mother Goddamn shocks her guests by auctioning a beautiful blonde English girl (Jacey Powers) to a group of Chinese boatmen. When they protest, she reveals their dark secrets, and then her own: she herself was once auctioned off by her English fiancé—Sir Guy. A Manchu princess, she had stolen her father’s money to launch his career.

Act II, unfortunately, implodes. Sir Guy’s insensitivity, not helped by a rather crude portrayal by Pine, feels more silly than searing. Veroczi’s sexual and alcoholic appetites that shock even Mother Goddamn seem comic and in their own way innocent. The elegant set by Michael Anania and gorgeous period costumes by Gail Cooper-Hect delight the eye, but Chen stumbles on nearly every line, which distracts. She’s wonderful when she doesn’t—elegant and full of power. Director Robert Kalfin goes for the melodrama, for good and ill, but can’t fully blow the dust off this exotic period piece.

>The Shanghai Gesture

Through May 17, Julia Miles Theater, 424 W. 55th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-757-3900; times vary, $52 and up.