Much technically stunning performance art is being done—work that it is sensitive, insightful, colorful and professional. But some audience members feel cheated by performances that rely on theatrical technique, as though art has a value that theater does not, as though art can do a job that theater cannot.

Rachel Rosenthal’s Leave Her in Naxos illuminates this question, as have other of her works. The performance was enormously effective, packed with glamour, color, sex and gossip, and offering, among other things, a Kama Sutra pantomime, celebrity stories, glittering costumes and an incredible