Rabble (Without a Cause) Improvisation;’10 Little Candidates’; ‘Period of Adjustment’

The fewer the members of an improv group, the more resourceful each member must be. Rabble (Without a Cause), at the Powerhouse, is hardly big enough to be a rabble. Yet its three zanies maintain a higher level of ingenuity than most groups that are twice their size.

The Rabble consists of two men--one tall (Rick Manheim), one short (Doug Stone)--and a woman, Jennie Webb. Stone cracks more than his share of the better lines, Manheim is a valuable foil, and Webb has a flair for comic neurosis that transcends the lines she speaks.

Their show last Saturday was never sidesplitting. But it was certainly clever. The Rabble covered a wider range of subjects, and made more pointed commentary on them than most improv groups manage to do.

The first improv, for example, took us through a day in the life of Karl Marx--or at least, the Marx that could be created from the audience suggestions thrown at the Rabble (some members of the audience apparently had the impression that Marx was Russian instead of German). Stone displayed a gift for instantaneous rhyming in a sketch in which he played Richard III.

The Rabble interpolated the issue of airport security into “The Wizard of Oz.” And “Family Feud” is exactly the right game show to use in a sketch in which political candidates play the contestants. The correct answers on that show don’t measure the facts as much as they measure public opinion (“survey says”. . .).

Stone did something that should impress cynics of the form: He rejected one of the audience suggestions because it had also been suggested--and used--a week ago. That’s the sort of discipline that keeps an improv group on its toes.

Performances are at 3116 2nd St., Santa Monica, Saturday nights at 10:45 p.m. Tickets: $5; (213) 392-6529.

‘Ten Little Candidates’

The title “Ten Little Candidates” sounds more appropriate this year than ever. But Gross National Product, the comedy troupe at the Cast, squanders the potential of that title.

Nearly all of the sketches are bite-sized, paced to television rhythms instead of theater rhythms. The satire is superficial and snide, too often resorting to little jokes about, say, polyester, instead of more incisive commentary. Considering that the material is scripted (by Joel Perry, John Simmons and Wes Johnson), not improvised, this failure to probe deeper is especially surprising.

It’s not that the group is without talent. Chuck Kovacic is its brightest light. His solo depiction of the sounds heard on Dec. 7, 1941, an evocation of a manchild who’s still playing “war,” is the evening’s most inspired sketch. It’s also the most atypical sketch, in that it’s virtually wordless and has nothing to do with the ostensible theme of the show. Kovacic also makes skillful fun of George Bush and Ollie North.

“The King Family Special” (that is, the Stephen King family) is pleasantly perverted. But what’s this lame parody of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme doing in this show? And why does the title sketch lampoon only those Democrats--Gary Hart, Joe Biden, and Pat Schroeder--who had dropped out of the race (long before I saw the sketch last weekend)?

Performances are at 800 N. El Centro Ave . , Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 p.m., indefinitely. Tickets: $8; (213) 462-0265.

‘Period of Adjustment’

Tennessee Williams’ half-baked comedy “Period of Adjustment” is certainly an unusual choice for a Christmas show--but in fact it is a Christmas show, set on Christmas Eve in a suburban Nashville home, complete with twinkling tree and lights and with a rosy, feel-good ending.

It’s an ending that’s entirely too rosy--and easy. Would either of these two squabbling couples resolve their problems so quickly, just in time for Christmas?

Well, Ralph (Web Williams) and Dorothea (Terri Hanauer) might. We get the feeling that Dorothea was goaded by her parents (Patti Karr and William Boyett) into walking out on Ralph. But Isabel (Lindy Nisbet) and George (Steve Nevil), on the day after their wedding, have just realized they made a whopper of a mistake. It’ll take more than a few rounds of “White Christmas”--or more than a few rounds of psychoanalysis by Williams--to straighten them out.

Marcia Rodd’s staging isn’t ideally cast--Hanauer isn’t as homely, nor Nevil as handsome, as their lines indicate. But the cast generates a modicum of comic energy, with especially telling contributions from Nisbet, Nevil and Karr.

The scenic and lighting designers (Duane Gardella and Jason Berliner respectively) created a surprisingly lavish look for the little Eagle Theatre stage. And the ominous rumble concocted by sound designers Vanessa Nelson and Brad Brinkman, to signal the slow slippage of this house into the ground, does more to suggest the dark undercurrent of the play than do the actors, or even the playwright.

Performances are at 182 N. Robertson Blvd . , Beverly Hills, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7 p.m., through Jan. 24. Tickets: $10-$12; (213) 652-3241.