‘WELCOME SIGNS’ : A COMEDY BUILT ON CHARACTER

“Welcome Signs” at the Flight Theater has less plot than a billboard, but the production is surprisingly vivid comedy--fresh proof that strong characterization generates its own action.

The work, staged for the first time, was originally commissioned by actress Joanne Woodward (for the River Arts Repertory writers’ workshop in Woodstock, N. Y.). East Coast playwright John Lewter has consciously written an airheaded version of a legit-styled sitcom focused on characters in a boarding house in New Orleans.

But the dialogue and the rich, seven-character acting ensemble, under the sublime touch of director Michael Cooper, are flavorful enough to render other theatrical concerns pretty moot. For instance, the experience would be more artful and fluid had the Canyon Theater Ensemble insisted on richer physical detail in David Carlton’s lighting and his uncertain attempt at a Southern courtyard setting.

But, ultimately, it doesn’t matter. The performers’ vocal accents are unobtrusively regional. And the actors etch imprints with a kind of pen-and-ink clarity.

They’re not screwballs--well, actress Annie La Russa’s spacey, prize music student does speak only in lines from old movies. They are real people with quirks. Even the one seeming stereotype, the music student’s self-serving older brother (Larry Stephenson), has a humorous fallibility.

Part of the play’s appeal comes from characters who never enjoy dramatic peaks, as such. Among them are Carol Hickey’s stripper, Donna Fuller’s determined, proper music teacher and Angela Wallace’s lovable, down-to-earth boarding house proprietor.

A staunch-looking handyman (Malcolm Smith) has an endearing way of striving to better himself by mastering a new word every day. The show’s capper is a delicious turn by Jean McNally as a transvestite, which works particularly well because McNally is naturally favored with great (thus incongruous) looks.

In its style, discipline and folksiness, the production is strongly reminiscent of the ongoing and local hit comedy, “Daddy’s Dyin’ (or Who’s Got the Will?).”

Performances at 6472 Santa Monica Blvd., Friday through Saturday, 8 p.m., through July 26, (213) 462-9399.