LOS ANGELES FESTIVAL : THEATRE RHINOCEROS : SF TROUPE AT HOME IN ‘PULP’

The big festival in town isn’t the only one welcoming out-of-towners. The Fringe Festival welcomed San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros Friday night at West Hollywood Park’s auditorium (and bid them farewell Sunday night). Not the most hospitable venue, but their musical spoof, “Pulp and Circumstance,” felt right at home.

Advance word suggested that Adele Prandini and Sue Zemel’s book was a ‘50s lesbian pulp novel come to life. It is set in that repressive era, when a lesbian bar owner (Donna Davis) would regularly have to pay off the cops if she wanted to keep her license. But Prandini’s and Zemel’s women only read the pulps, then have to get on with their lives.

Young Lauren (Judy Wellisch), saddled with a mom and dad out of the Stone Age, is having a tough time with that assignment.

So Maxie’s Hideaway is a safe refuge--even when the cops drop by. The book’s plot is a dizzying warp-and-woof of circumstances, which is all to be expected. Some of them humanize the characters (it’s nice to see Lauren and her mom--a scintillating turn by Ann Block--realize their true identities). Some of them dehumanize in the service of agitprop (Mykel j Mengert’s dad is less a monster than a human dart board for the authors).

“Pulp and Circumstance’s” jocular lampooning, though, is closer to “Grease” than to Jane Chambers--even if the singing never takes off. It’s left behind by some sharp comedy acting under Prandini’s direction (especially Brandi Swann and Sheila Travis). Jan Cole’s uneven, deliberately tacky tunes are a few too many. Giving every character a song is democratic but unwise.