By Charlene Baldridge

How many goddesses stretch from ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt to Adam’s first wife, Lilith, to Hilary Clinton? Creator/director Javier Velasco and projection designer David Scott set out to show you quite a few in the Moxie Theatre production of “Eternally Bad,” a world premiere musical playing through Aug. 2 at the Rolando theater.

To assist in enumerating the goddesses and telling their wacky tales (based on the work of comics queen Trina Robbins), Velasco, who co-conceived the musical with Steve Gunderson, enlists “Three Sisters,” sung (music by San Diego jazz artist/composer Candye Kane) and outrageously acted by Devlin, Melissa Fernandes and Rae K. Hendersen.

The men they castrate, strip, beat up and dismember are portrayed by hunky Erik Dugan (Adonis), who makes his first San Diego stage appearance here, and the gifted Michael Parrott (Guy). When all these forces sing in harmony (arrangements by Gunderson), it is a wondrous sound. With the exception of Dugan, who displays luscious physical beauty and rudimentary acting skill, all contribute comic chops as well, and Fernandes in particular shows a range of talents that wow even those familiar with her work. We already knew Devlin is capable of evoking tears and laughter. Hendersen’s vocal skills are impressive, too, but she seems most of the time to be at a remove from the material and the audience.

Though the dizzying procession of goddesses and situations, performed at high dudgeon, eventually exhausted this onlooker and though the music lacks variety (slightly exacerbated by Gunderson), one is consistently amused by Velasco’s choreography and stage movement and Kate Bishop’s deft and colorful costumes, which morph instantaneously with the addition of a scarf or a shirt. Kristen Flores creates the non-committal scenic design; Jason Bieber, the lighting; and Matt Lescault-Wood, the excellent sound design. It’s not easy to effectively mike singers in so small a house.

Among my favorite numbers were Lilith’s “Who’s on Top?” Jezebel’s “Eternally Bad,” Pele’s “Don’t Mess With Fire,” and Grizzly Woman’s “People Who Eat People.” Parrott lends much hilarity as Ra, the Egyptian sun god, and as a sumo wrestler.

Among the other goddesses are Amaterasu, Louhi, Kilinoe, Jezebel, Madari, Kali, Erishkigal, Artemis, Kannaki, Inanna, Uzume, Circe, Isis and Osmotar. And those are just the goddesses.

In an interesting sidebar provided by one of the Moxies, I’m told that Velasco first met Kane when he called her to ask permission to use one of her songs in a dance version of “Eternally Bad,” which he did with San Diego Ballet. With Kane he then created a musical based on her life story, titled “The Toughest Girl Alive,” which became a workshop at Moxie several years ago. Kane’s only connection to Velasco’s “Eternally Bad” is that she wrote the music.

Kudos to Moxie for taking a chance on new work, something it has done throughout its 10-year existence. Creative types both young and seasoned and male and female, deserve a platform for their work concerning women. In addition to individual producers, “Eternally Bad” is also supported by the San Diego Foundation, Creative Catalyst Program.

—Charlene Baldridge has been writing about the arts since 1979. You can follow her blog at charlenebaldridge.com or reach her at [email protected].