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Sex, Cruelty and Theater in 'Liaisons'

By Matt Windman

Roundabout Theatre Company's Les Liaisons Dangereuses, with Ben Daniels and Laura Linney. (Joan Marcus)

Christopher Hampton's "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" is a total anomaly in modern dramatic literature. Based on the 18th-century French novel of the same title, it is a dark comedy-cum-erotic thriller that observes two pre-Revolutionary aristocrats who use sex as weapon in a vicious game of humiliating and destroying their friends and enemies. This involves seducing a 15-year-old virgin in one scene followed by a happily married, fervently religious wife in the next.

It was turned into the 1988 film "Dangerous Liaisons" with John Malkovich and Glenn Close and directly inspired the 1999 teen flick "Cruel Intentions" with Reese Witherspoon and Sarah Michelle Geller.

For any production of the play to succeed, a strong and seductive male and female are needed to portray the longtime friends and occasional lovers Vicomte de Valmont and Marquise de Merteuil. Lindsay Duncan and Alan Rickman first played the pair in the original 1988 Broadway production. Now donning the period costumes is the equally excellent team of Laura Linney and Ben Daniels, both of who emphasize the play's sexiness and smart humor.

In the spirit of Don Juan, Daniels dynamically indulges in his character's greed, carelessness and showiness to great effect. He also nails the Marquis' emotional breakdown later into the play, which leading him to voluntarily die in a duel. While Linney's character remains static, she too thrives as a cunning, conniving, corrupt yet simultaneously magnetic and mesmerizing lady of society.

The set design consists mostly of drapes and sheets that eventually twist and turn into a giant cobweb, symbolizing the disastrous, deadly mess created by the protagonists. And as with any period European drama, the silk skirt and embroidered coat costumes are extravagantly plush.

American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd St, 212-719-1300, $56.25-101.25. Tues 8pm, Wed 2 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 2pm. Thru July 6.