STAGE REVIEW : WIT WILTS AT TIFFANY’S ‘JAILBIRDS’

Cheri Eichen and Bill Steinkellner were the primary creative forces behind the defunct “Instaplay,” an intense hour of laughter late Saturday nights at the Cast Theatre. They and their cohorts would take a title suggestion from the audience and improvise an entire musical comedy from it.

Now they’ve taken one of those titles, “Jailbirds on Broadway,” and expanded it into a 2 1/2-hour written-down and rehearsed musical at the Tiffany. The laughter isn’t nearly as intense.

No longer can we marvel at the quickness of the wit displayed in “Instaplay.” Without this distraction, the staleness of the material quickly becomes apparent. Seldom has one show called to mind so many others, most of them shorter in length.

Not only does “Jailbirds” spoof the old women’s prison movies and the backstage musicals, but it echoes all the previous spoofs of those movies--from a dozen sketches on “The Carol Burnett Show” to “Women Behind Bars,” from the current “Women in Prison” sitcom to a show that’s right next door to “Jailbirds,” “Identical Twins From Baltimore.” Like “Jailbirds,” “Twins” features a prison scene, a big man in drag, a story about two women in show business and a campy tone.

As with “Identical Twins,” the drag act in “Jailbirds” is the funniest thing in the show. Peter Van Norden plays Maude, the over-sized ruler of the women’s cellblock. Maude and her two little lackeys (Roger Castellano and Richard Doran) wear three of the tackiest wigs ever made (costumer: Reve Richards).

Maude’s gang disappears after intermission, but wisecracks about them continue, including one line--referring to the William Morris talent agency--that gets the show’s biggest guffaw.

Fern Fitzgerald and Constance Harcar play the cons who break out of the slammer and try to blend into a Broadway chorus line. Harcar has exactly the right peach-blossom looks, and both the leads get their share of laughs. Elmarie Wendel does better than that as their grizzled mentor. But only Ralph Bruneau, as a kindly prison guard, sings as well as he acts.

The songs (lyrics by Eichen, music by Jeff Rizzo) display some cheek (“New Fish Comin’ ”) but more often are too pale for parody (“Broadway Bound”).

Glenn Casale directed.