‘BACKBONE’

Mark D. Kaufmann has a simple moral in mind for his two one-acts at the Tiffany, collectively known as “Backbone of America”: You can’t always get what you want because you don’t always know just what it is. The axiom proves to be as true of at least half the show itself as it does for the characters involved.

The first and best of the two vignettes is the title piece, a remarkably well-observed account of a baby-sitting session in which teacher-pupil roles are suddenly reversed. Under Kaufmann’s own astute direction, Michael Spound (as the baby sitter) and Alexander Polinsky (as his precocious charge) have a terrific rapport that gives the allegory an involving human dimension.

“Scenic Route” succeeds less well, due largely to its grander ambitions. The setup is promising enough: two self-involved, do-it-for-the-money actors condemned to replay the same scene from a low-budget adventure film (called “The Gods in All Kinds of Trouble”) through eternity until they work together in getting it right.

The play begins well enough, with William Campbell and Shelley Taylor Morgan delightful as the disbelieving narcissists (“evil people go to hell--not actors,” they lament) and Groundling Doug Cox an absolute scream as a nepotistic assistant director. But it’s too long by half, making for a rather inadvertent sort of purgatorial adventure.

If the two shows themselves lack consistency, Deborah Raymond’s sets and Dorian Vernacchio’s lighting nicely reflect the plays’ respective tenors. Randolph Dreyfuss’ original music underscores the sense of unrealized aspiration that’s at the heart of this not-quite-solid “Backbone of America.”

Performances at 8532 Sunset Blvd. run Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., through March 9; (213) 851-3771.