One can question the creativity, if not the box office wisdom, of reviving two past hits in a single season – but no matter. The Red Barn has struck gold with the current dual run of Sylvia Tuesday through Saturday and The Vagina Monologues on Sunday and Monday. Both have been sell-outs, the buzz positive and the audience response warm. I just barely shoehorned myself into the full house to see the latter tonight, so consider yourselves warned.

Sylvia is a romp in the park, a lovers’ breakfast in bed, a skinny dip on a subtropic summer night – in other words, a delight. Reprising the title role, originated seven years ago, Marjorie Paul-Shook is so perfectly doggy you want to check yourself for fleas on the way out. (OK, so the character was actually flea-dipped off stage in Act I, but it’s a great image.) The woman’s sense of the comedic is near flawless; both physically and vocally she conjured up the canine in vivid terms – so much so that even those of us pulling for Kate the wife, sympathetically reprised by Mimi McDonald, in this love triangle had a tough time staying dry-eyed in face of the bitch’s inevitable demise (at age 84 – or maybe 91 – in dog years).

Similarly, Richard Grusin, a consummate actor reprising his role as the smitten husband Greg, is sympathetic and charming even when those who might be described as cat people are inspired to smack the character upside the head and argue, “Look, Sylvia’s a dog! Kate is your admittedly dearly loved wife of 22 years!”

A.R. Gurney’s play is categorized “a romantic comedy,” relying on wit as well as the hugely physical comedy of actor as dog. (Audiences got a preview of this in the Barn’s season opener, Bark.) Director Joy Hawkins and the three veteran actors are totally comfortable playing it as such, to the immense amusement of the audience.

They are aided and abetted by the production’s only newcomer, Key West’s favorite song-and-dance man, Bruce Moore, in a trio of roles – one fairly type-cast, two totally outrageous. While particularly adept at musicals, Moore is convincing especially as the owner of Sylvia’s lust interest, Bowser – but he is over the top in drag as Kate’s old friend and especially as the gender-perplexing marriage counselor with the obligatory German accent. Moore really isn’t suited for drag – there’s simply something too male about him (and as such he was perfect as the original guy in La te da’s "Broadway Three Ways") -- which probably makes these characterizations even more hilarious.

The buzz on this show has been 100% positive; audiences love it. Only a single critic seems to have disagreed – and his only criticism of the production, as opposed to the academic dissection of Gurney’s script, was that Paul-Shook wasn’t an ingénue. Now, it is totally unprofessional for a critic to debate the opinion of another critic – but sweeties, I’ve been called lots worse around here than unprofessional. We aren’t talking Bald Soprano or End Game or Waiting for Godot here; we aren’t even talking Love Letters, Gurney’s more clearly tragic-comic epistolary play.

The three starring actors have aged gracefully together; for Sylvia to be played by an ingénue (and I confess I hate that word as only an actor doomed for decades to play juveniles and character roles, mostly whores, might understand) would practically make a child molester of Grusin’s Greg. The casting – and Gary McDonald’s Manhattan skyline set and tech and everything else – is perfectly fine, and the deft stage direction of Rebecca Tomlinson keeps everything moving along at a proper clip, almost entirely avoiding those maddening over-long blackouts for scene changes – no small accomplishment.

The Red Rooster Review continues to breath life and heat into the old art of burlesque strip tease. Now a Friday night regular at Kelly’s Upstairs Theater, the always accomplished troupe sports some new faces and new takes on the good old moves. The show starts at 9 – and was a sell-out week before last. Special prices for locals. Phone (305) 433-0165.

Finally, another art party, real art – acrylic paintings -- this time: Linda Egan, a multi-Anne McKee award winner, opened her first solo show in the Mario Sanchez Room at East Martello March 1 – but postponed the celebration till closing, which will be Sat. March 29, 1 till 4. She’s particularly tickled that the Lower Keys’ own Big Pecker Winery is providing beverages.

Coming up: a new book by SeaStory Press that is going to hit Key West like a wasp’s nest – Cayo Hueso Cuba Libre, a stinging intrigue/satire, by former local journalist Michael Ritchie. It’s so thin-skinned as to be transparent; you’ll love (or hate) the characters – all ficticious, of course, wink wink. I couldn’t put the damn thing down. Hope there’ll be a launch soon.