STAGE REVIEW : ‘Cirque du Sunday’ Recovers Well

Despite a rocky start, “Cirque du Sunday,” the latest show from the Groundlings second-stringers, isn’t far behind the current efforts of the first-stringers.

An ineffective one-joke take-off on Cirque du Soleil opened the show Sunday. Though it was followed by a quartet of sensitive wranglers singing a clever rap ditty, the next few sketches were uninspired. A nerd’s tour of his home was the show’s nadir--the one sketch where you could really tell the difference between first-string and second-string work.

Yet the next sketch, about a couple of complainers at a deli, bristled with the energy of a raucous cartoon; credit writers/performers Corky Omine and Billy Wright.

Audrey Rapoport followed with a surprisingly subtle examination of an Orange County Republican activist handling an awkward moment at a lecture, and she and Mary Scheer were hilarious as two smiling drill team members in a halftime show. Scheer changed course radically to become a voice-ravaged habitue of the “Ashtray Inn.”

A whodunit sketch that opened the second act was forgettable, but affectionate portraits of goofily enthusiastic teachers, by Sean Whalen and John Cervenka, were memorable.

Cathy Shambley directed this “Cirque,” including the fairly sharp improvisatory set at the end.

At 7307 Melrose Ave., Sundays at 7:30 p.m., indefinitely. $9.50; (213) 934-9700.