“I’m in desperate need for some inspiration,” says Sakae (Marc delaCruz), a wealthy Japanese traveler who descends on Belle Époque Paris in search of writing material. He stumbles upon Colette, a sex worker at the Night Egg, a modest house of ill repute, and convinces her to document her encounters so he can repurpose them as his own. If the premise of Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen sounds alluring, I’m sorry to disappoint. The result is as captivating as watching a Chaturbate online sex worker vape their night away.
Theatergoers had high hopes for the musical, based on Moyoco Annno’s manga and featuring a book by Leah Nanako Winkler and a score by Duncan Sheik. Entering the Night Egg, an in-the-round space deliciously designed by Scott Pask, bathed in Brian Tovar’s saturated light and filled with Catherine Zuber’s jewel-toned garments and fetish accessories, feels like a promise. Then things go off the rails.
It wants better content.
A muse, a con man & a notebook full of kinks
The story centers on Colette’s (a vacant Sophi Anne Curuso) desperate attempts to hold on to her manipulative boyfriend (a one-note Cory Jeacoma), a gaslighting con man who wants to run off to the French Riviera with another woman.
Throughout a plot with more holes than the sex workers’ fishnet stockings, we meet several regulars, from a circus-loving voyeur to a client into pup play. (Can someone please give Michael Starr a pair of kneepads?)
Director-choreographer Rob Ashford, whose Tony nominations and wins have often come for lighter fare, including Thoroughly Modern Millie and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, does little to make sense of Winkler’s rigid, cliché-bristling book.
“Nobody told you that you would be nothing!” Léon exclaims as the couple breaks up. “Because I was always NOTHING,” Colette responds. “Nobody had to tell me…. But I thought I meant something to you!”
Sheik, who died eight days before the first preview, deserved a better send-off. His score rarely rises above functional, with songs that explain the action rather than deepen it. His legacy is better served by Studio Seaview’s Spring Awakening revival, which begins previews November 27.
A few polished rhinestones emerge from the dramaturgical rubble, most notably Nkeki Obi-Melekwe as Nana, who broke away from the Night Egg to go solo, taking a third of its clients with her. Now that’s a memoir worth reading.
It wants better content.
Is ‘Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen’ worth seeing?
Production designers Scott Pask, Catherine Zuber and Brian Tovar make the Night Egg a tempting address, but Leah Nanako Winkler’s book and Duncan Sheik’s score rarely give anyone a reason to stay the night.
- The Night Egg at the Culture Club, 530 W. 27th St., New York, NY 10001
- Notable performers: Sophia Anne Caruso, Cory Jeacoma, Nkeki Obi-Melekwe, Jenny Powers, Marc delaCruz
- Running time: 90 minutes, no intermission
- Performances through Jan. 3, 2027
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