Underneath It All : Writers attend lingerie parties to research their play. The real thing’s bawdier than the one in ‘Sirens.’

Lee Murphy and Jan Bina swear that their new play about an at-home lingerie party has nothing on the real thing.

“We did do research and go to a couple of them,” noted Murphy, whose comedy “Sirens of Seduc tion” had its world premiere last weekend at the Victory Theatre in Burbank. “The real thing is a lot more bawdy than our play--a lot. We both learned several words we hadn’t heard before.”

Co-writer Bina concurs. “The first party we went to was a little shocking. The woman greeted us at the door wearing a see-through teddy.”

Longtime pals as well as collaborators, Murphy and Bina originally conceived “Sirens” as a screenplay; after a reading at Actors Forum, they were persuaded to make it into a play. Since 1989, they’ve been working on the piece at the Victory. “It’s been really intensive for the last year and a half,” Bina said. “We cast the show, then met with the actors once a week, then did rewrites. So we could really see it on its feet.”

One alteration has been the added story line of a husband who’s just walked out on the play’s lead character, Judy, a stay-at-home mom. “It’s about a woman putting her life back together, seeing through the mess,” explained Bina, who works part time in commercial casting and is also mother to a 6-year-old, Andy. “The lingerie show itself is almost incidental. The message is about waking up to your own potential: ‘Don’t let things slide.’ ”

Besides toning down the sexual content they found at lingerie parties--marital aids are referred to, but not shown--there’s also been an age adjustment: The play’s seven “sirens” are in their 20s and 30s. The real-life party-goers ranged from 19 to 60, Murphy said, and “the older women were cackling through the whole thing.” She originally became intrigued with the idea after reading an Esquire article by Bob Greene many years ago--”and it seemed like a great situation to put characters into.”

Born and raised in Chicago, Bina “did a lot of stand-up, a lot of theater,” she said, and four years off-and-on with the improv group Second City, where she met her husband.

She described her most “far-out credit” as a stint in Chicago’s now-defunct Godzilla Rainbow Troupe in the 1975 show, “Turds in Hell”; Bina played Vera, a roller-skating nun in pasties and a G-string. “I’ve done a lot of comedy,” she said wryly. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1978, she began supplementing her acting jobs with casting work eight years ago--”which has been very useful in putting on this play.”

A Texas native, Murphy performed as a child with her sister on local TV shows, and later attended the University of Houston and San Diego State University as a TV and film major. “I was always acting,” she explained, “but writing too--little stories since high school.” Since resettling here in 1978, she has worked on writing projects with Bina and on her own. One solo venture--the children’s book, “Peregrine,” about a homeless dog living in Los Angeles--is currently under consideration at Avon.

Murphy also works part time in casting, and is a full-time mother to two children, Benny, 5, and Rebecca, 19 months. She said proudly that she and Bina first hooked up at “the only Hollywood party I’ve ever been to” in 1979--the same evening she met her husband. “The three of us sat down together and started talking,” she recalled. “Little did we know we’d be spending the rest of our lives together.”

Where and When

What: “Sirens of Seduction.”

Location: Victory Theatre, 3326 Victory Blvd., Burbank.

Hours: 8 p.m. Thursdays to Saturdays and 7 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 6.

Price: $15 to $17.

Call: (818) 841-5421.