Lovelace – a Rock Musical

Anyone hoping for a bit of late-night smut will leave Lovelace sorely disappointed. This rock opera biography goes way beyond the six days in Florida that newlywed Linda Boreman spent in 1972, shooting a low-budget porn film about a woman who can’t orgasm, a milestone picture that would enter the mainstream consciousness, gross tens of millions of dollars and irrevocably change cultural attitudes to sex. From Catholic schoolgirl to exploited bride and fellatio poster girl, this grimly fascinating musical also charts Boreman’s subsequent rejection of porn, her redemption as a mother and the 2002 car crash that ultimately killed her.

Performed by most of the original US cast, written by Jeffrey Leonard Bowman and with a restless rock score recalling Tommy from Charlotte Caffey and Anna Waronker, Lovelace is a compelling study of female exploitation. About as sensitive as it can be without seeming incongruously prurient, Lovelace doesn’t spare the degradation of Boreman’s descent into Hell, lead Katrina Lenk belting out one number while being taken by three men, the scenes from her momentarily glamorous porn career invariably less troubling than the abuse she’s subjected to by her husband and her rejection by her religious family.

Condemnation and broader social analysis is withheld in favour of straight biography, the originality of the tale and Lenk’s impressive emotional range obscuring the simplistic storytelling. Songs like the raunchy Let’s Fuck won’t quit your memory in a hurry, but the abiding memory is of Boreman triumphantly defiant against the Lovelace legacy by the conclusion of her life.