REVIEW - The Bad Seed at Desert Rose

Review by Barry Gaines for the Albuquerque Journal July 26, 2008

“The Bad Seed” has had tremendous success in three genres. It began as a 1954 novel by William March that sold a million copies in its first year while winning critical acclaim.


“The Bad Seed” was then adapted for the stage by Pulitzer-Prize-winner Maxwell Anderson. It opened on Broadway late in 1954 where it was a hit. Nancy Kelly won the Best Actress Tony for her portrayal of the play’s anguished mother. In 1956, Anderson’s play became a movie directed by Mervyn LeRoy, with Nancy Kelly and young Patty McCormack reprising their roles as mother and daughter. The movie was popular although the ending had to be altered to provide the punishment required by the outmoded Hays Code then still in effect. The film’s melodramatic acting, however, was later seen almost as self-parody.

So, over fifty years later, how does “The Bad Seed” hold up in the presentation by The Dolls—Albuquerque’s drag ensemble—at the Desert Rose Playhouse? First, I find this production an important accomplishment for The Dolls, who have been known mostly for their revues. Yes, men play women’s parts, but there is a balance between camp and serious in the acting. I am not suggesting that the parts are played (dare I say) straight, but there is genuine emotion in several of the portrayals. Ten-year-old Rhoda is the “too-good-to-be-true” daughter/sociopath. Twenty-six-year-old AJ Carian portrays her with a toothsome grin and a terrifying insouciance. She is the “bad seed” who lacks conscience or empathy, a heartless killer in pigtails. Her mother Christine, played effectively and sympathetically by Tequila Mockingbyrd (Kenneth Ansloan), grows aware of her daughter’s evil and searches for its origins. Christine’s landlord, Monica, played with humor and a great pompadour by Patrick Ross, offers Freudian explanations, while Christine’s father (Jim Johns) believes that depraved individuals come from depraved environments. From him Christine learns the secret of her own past.

As I applaud the serious characterizations, I must also mention problems with the script. The play is too long and repetitious. Patti Roxxx (Jaime Pardo) has a strong scene as the drunken mother of one of Rhoda’s victims, but her second scene simply repeats the first. The mystery novelist Salome (a man in the original script) is affectedly played by Chastity Belt-Off (director Bradd Howard), but the character is superfluous. Jay Kincheloe plays a genuinely creepy janitor (you know, the one who is always looking at the little girl), but he simply becomes another corpse. The story’s original postwar social commentary (is Rhoda Nazi Germany?) and psychological impact have been blunted by time (a preteen killer is the “Newsweek” cover story), but The Dolls give their all in this retelling.

“The Bad Seed” by Maxwell Anderson plays at The Desert Rose Playhouse, 6921 Montgomery NE, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. through August 10. $12. Call 881-0503.