Dept. of acceptability; butt out.(New York Times Advertising Acceptability Department)(The talk of the Town)

In 1986, when "Vienna: Lusthaus," an experimental theatre piece by the director Martha Clarke, was first performed at St. Clement's Church, on West Forty-sixth Street, the Times theatre critic Frank Rich hailed the steamy evocation of psychosexual doings in fin-de-siecle Vienna as a work that succeeds "beyond one's wildest dreams -- perhaps because [Clarke] has tapped into everyone's wildest dreams." Recently, when the Eliran Murphy Group, an ad agency that specializes in live entertainment, sent a layout advertising a revival of the show for insertion in the Arts section of the Times, the paper's guardians of all the commercial graphics that are fit to print rejected it on the ground of "questionable taste."

"It never crossed my mind that there would be a problem," said Janice Brunell, who designed the ad for the show, which is in previews atthe New York Theatre Workshop and will open on May 8th. "For one thing, the ad had already run in Time Out."

What the Times' Advertising Acceptability Department found unacceptable was an ad whose most arresting feature is a female dancer (from the original production) clad in nothing but black ankle boots and thigh-high stockings who is sitting sideways in such a way that the only bare body parts visible below her neck are a shoulder, an arm, a back, a waist, a hip, a buttock, an upper outer thigh, and a sliver of upper inner thigh. Below the logo "Vienna: Lusthaus (revisited)," whose bold, slightly wiggly letters were taken from a poster by Oskar Kokoschka, is a cautionary note that reads, "Nudity and suggested sexual activity. Not suitable for children under 14."

"I was told, 'It's the boots,' " Brunell said. "I've got a couple of pairs myself, and nobody's ever said a thing about them. Apparently, butts are out, too."

To Martha Clarke and the people at Eliran Murphy, the rejection was puzzling. They complained to the ...