STAGE REVIEW : ‘ ‘Tis the Season’

A couple of Santa Clauses appear and holiday decorations festoon the barroom setting of Actors Forum’s Yuletide offering, “ ‘Tis the Season.” But though the “Inn Place” is crowded with people who apparently have no other place to celebrate, the show really has little to do with Christmas.

“Season” is willing to celebrate, but its spirit is weak. The production is a loosely connected series of sitcom vignettes that are intent on poking fun at current mores and manners. Much of the material is old hat, including a couple of Tom Lehrer parodies and the three-decade-old chestnut about the foul-mouthed nun slugging down double vodkas (finally unveiled as a fugitive from “The Sound of Music”).

The performances are generally energetic and well defined, and some of the material (by Roger Karshner, Martha Singer, Valarie Woods and J. C. Curtiss) looks as though it might benefit from expansion into longer forms, but the one-joke structure of most of the sketches defeats the hearty efforts of the company and Curtiss’ bright direction.

Notable in the amiable but aimless evening are Shawne Rowe and Lily Tanner-Macy as two girls discussing the pros and cons of abortion, and the sharp portraits of two brothers bemoaning the passing of the easy ‘70s in “Safe Sex,” with strong performances by Vince Palmieri and Steven Rosenbaum indicating the piece might make an interesting longer one-act.

Barbara Allen provides a beautifully shaded comic performance as a friendly type denying she’s trying to pick up a sharpie (Shawn Michaels) while she’s actually doing it. These performances are the brightest ornaments on Actors Forum’s Christmas effort.

At 3365 1/2 Cahuenga Blvd. West; Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; through Dec. 16. Tickets: $10; (818) 969-0850.