STAGE REVIEW : ‘Pokerfaces’ at Odyssey Deals Cast a Bad Hand

Poker is an explosive metaphor favored by dramatists, almost as useful as the neighborhood bar for cathartic purposes. And the five- and seven-card stud games in the all-male “Pokerfaces and Castanets” at the Odyssey Theatre are the real thing.

What a bunch of guys.

Unfortunately, the play is a drag about the games of life men play. The production is strong, well-directed by Avi Hoffman and vividly acted by a strong ensemble of six actors. But not much happens. You don’t care about these men. The only empathic figure is a disgruntled doctor (Allen Garfield), but this character doesn’t make it into the second act, leaving a crucial hole.

As a measure of the show’s dynamic details, the coke snorting is awfully well-staged. Coke isn’t seriously dramatized much anymore. But it’s theatrically refreshing to find it replacing booze for a credible change.

Playwright Sidney Goldberg sets his drama in 1983 (a minuscule but important point) in order to better mirror a self-centered, self-destructive world: six rich, successful materialistic buddies who are one step from being “GoodFellas.”

One of them who made his fortune in garbage (Raymond Serra) packs a gun and almost uses it. The host (Alan Feinstein) is a satyr, a wenching, constantly-sniffing fashion photographer.

The others are an agent (George Shannon), an entertainer who denies his blackness (Norman Bernard) and a professional wrestler who wears a toupee pony tail (Larry Marks).

But what, you ask, are they doing together? They have absolutely nothing in common. These are the kind of guys you’d find yourself with in a drunk tank, not at a monthly gab fest.

“Pokerfaces and Castanets,” Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends March 17. $18-$22, (213) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.