SKIN DEEP.(new downtown theatre production 'Pieces (of Ass))

"Mamacita,"?"tentpole,"?"Madonna with meatballs,"?"a li'l bit of all right": these are among the many synonyms for "hot chick" offered in a film clip that introduces "Pieces (of Ass)," a new downtown theatre production about so-called "hot-chick angst." The play's cast members--a dozen regulars, plus a rotating celebrity "Centerpiece"--are all in the classic bombshell mode, by the design of the director, Brian Howie, who, although he has a steady girlfriend, seems to have wanted to spend the past four months with as many pretty women as possible. His casting-call ad, placed in Back Stage in early March, read, "Seeking: actresses who are seriously beautiful, hot, sexy, pretty, gorgeous, stunning (and you know it)."

"I used to notice that the better-looking the girl the more trouble they seemed to get involved with," Howie, or Piecemaster, as he is known backstage, said the other day. "And I noticed that the blacks were having their say, the gays were having their say, the feminists were having their say, everybody except the people who appeal to me the most as a thirty-five-year-old guy--the hot chicks." He had a beach tan and was smiling mischievously, dressed in a suit with an open shirt, while drinking vodka at the show's opening-night party, held at Mannahatta, a club on the Bowery, as the cast posed for pictures outside.

To be fair, the women in "Pieces (of Ass)" are feminists, of a "Charlie's Angels"-Third Wave sort, each delivering an original "empowering" monologue, in the grand chick-soliloquy tradition of Molly Bloom and Eve Ensler, and, since the show's stated aim is to "go beneath the facade," wearing little in the way of an outer layer. (There's no nudity, but West Coast audiences beware: Howie says, "The Los Angeles version will be significantly more maximized.")

"Feel free to judge this book by its cover," one Piece who's sick of being evaluated for her personality says. The troubles associated with feminine beauty, as described in the play, are, for the most part, fairly banal: putting up with insecure guys, suitors who propose too readily, boyfriends who are themselves hot and thus steal the spotlight.

At the party, Howie, who admits, "I'm the guy in the monologues--the things they talk about, I've been that guy," tried offering some insight gained from his new behind-the-scenes perspective. ...