Exhibitionism

The Ladee Leroy Show: All Woman

Hyde Park Theatre, through May 10

Running Time: 1 hr, 40 min

While it's possible not to like Lee Eddy, the person doing the disliking would have to be jealous of her pure storytelling ability, envious of her perceptive, multilayered, highly comic writing, or just downright misogynistic. Or misanthropic, as the case may be -- Eddy's a bit androgynous. She looks tall because she's thin. Throughout her show, she claims to have nice breasts, and while I don't doubt her word, it's difficult to tell. Her hair is short, almost enough to qualify her for the armed forces, and she slouches -- very unladylike. If in this, her mostly one-woman show produced by Cafe Armageddon (headed by Chronicle Arts Listings Editor Wayne Alan Brenner), she never opened her mouth and wasn't wearing a green T-shirt that says "'Tis Herself," you might take her for a young man. But she's not. She's all woman.

And I only mean that in the nicest way. It may be that Eddy doesn't want to be all woman, but I doubt it because most of her show, at least on the night I attended, revolves around her relationship with Lipman, her British-Australian boyfriend, who is a pretty likable guy, as well. Through the course of the evening, they meet, fall in love, argue, make up, and draw way too cute and spoogey pictures for each other. Lipman is never actually seen; rather, we see Eddy play Lipman, along with other characters and scenes, as well, including a classical ode to Thundercloud Subs, another more modern ode to the Whopper, and the "Dancing Meat Inspector #37 Theme Song."

Ladee Leroy is the pseudonym Eddy uses on her Web site, ladeeleroy.diaryland.com. If you visit, you'll find the pieces Eddy performs in the show there (including the Dancing Meat Inspector song -- and if you don't believe that Eddy's all woman, check out the pics in the Dancing Meat Inspector entry). On the evening I went, Eddy was performing pieces from Menu B, the Lipman menu. She presented Menu A, the job menu, the first week, and during the final week, if you see the show, Eddy will let you choose the dishes. And they're tasty. Both the dishes and the titles as well. A sampling: "Why Would I Be Ashamed of My Fine Nude Self?"; "Drinking Makes You Look Cool. Seriously,"; "Now I Take a Break From Saying 'O! Woe Is Me!' and Talk About the Smell of Ass." Eddy didn't present these pieces in the show I saw -- I just ripped off the titles from her Web site -- and I don't know if she presents them on Menu A, but the pieces I saw from Menu B were as entertaining contentwise as the Web site is, both contentwise and titlewise.

Eddy can be a bit manic, she says so herself, even. And she can be a bit abrasive and a bit loud, take the roof right off the place, which can be irritating. But she also can be quiet, innocent, dramatic, sincere, silly, and often just plain uncontrollably funny. So go. Go ahead. Go and see if you don't like her. I bet you will.