STAGE REVIEWS : ‘SUPPORTING CAST’

Belabored best describes the humor of “The Supporting Cast” by George Furth, and the current production at Westminster Community Theatre plays right into all of its manufactured laughs.

The forced feel of this play starts with the premise: A writer summons four friends to her Malibu beach house to read her new novel, which features all of them as thinly disguised characters. When they discover that she has revealed confidences and described them in less than flattering terms, they feel betrayed.

The kindly sentiment behind the book--and the play--is that public figures often have strong “supporting casts” of unselfish and largely unnoticed men and women who are very special in their own right. It’s a nice point, but it’s stranded amid some very silly slapstick, unlikely plot development and broad caricatures, leaving it with all the sincerity of a dime store diamond ring.

Much of the humor is written around the artificial rather than the everyday. A sliding glass door fools people into thinking it is open when it is really shut; a telephone only works sporadically; doorbell signals requiring explanation are part of the plot, and a tired list of natural disasters such as landslides, fires and earthquakes--presumably designed to assert the superiority of New York City over Southern California--is central to the action. Director Gregory Cohen has added some nice comic moments, but there is still too much dead time where the action is reduced to fussing with props.

The characters are no more likely than some of the plot machinations, starting with the hapless hostess, sympathetically played by Sharyn Case. She is forced to spend the bulk of the play defensively apologizing, lamely explaining and nervously puttering around the house. Her eccentric friends include the mother of a composer (Alene Hyatt, in fine deadpan), the wife of a politician (Gwen Banta, whose hysteria finally gives way to reason in a nicely done if unlikely turn), the husband of a playwright (Joshua Kaye, who wears an appropriately unassuming air) and the wife of a movie star (Karen Jackman, who effectively communicates understandably righteous indignation).

“The Supporting Cast” will play through April 11 at Westminster Community Theatre, 7272 Maple St., Westminster. Information: (714) 995-4113.