Wonkers

In this lighthearted, fast-moving New York fable, Barbara Jane McGrath, a bitterly anti-male 37-year-old editor of feminist literature, attends her New Age women's group meeting and through a ``Hormonic Convergence'' is accidentally changed into a man. Barbara Jane's gay roommate, Charles, controls his attention to the heterosexual ``B.J.,'' helping him cope with clothes, attitudes and his developing crush on Barbara Jane's best friend, Margot. Following an unsuccessful ceremony by the women's group to reverse the change, the spirit of Barbara Jane speaks to B.J. from within, offering advice to help him see both masculine and feminine views of relationships. The premise here is obviously preposterious, but the funny, human characters and situations encourage suspension of disbelief. The details of B.J.'s adjustment to the male mindset and the corny happy ending compensate for the occasional facile moralizing. Littlepage wrote Murder-by-the-Sea. (Aug.)