STAGE REVIEW : ‘Headset’ Stuck in Sitcom Mind-Set

Bill Streib’s “Headset,” at the Richard Basehart Playhouse in Woodland Hills, is a dandy example of a clever idea gone amok. Conceived by Streib and director Thomas White, it purports to be about the relationship between a young man and his stepfather in a theater’s sound booth, which parallels the production of “Hamlet” taking place below.

It might have been a gutsy, wrenching little comedy, but this battle is all surface and incidental to the sitcom-flavored collapse of the performance they’re guiding.

The “Hamlet” cast throwing up all over the stage after eating some bad pizza, and a cop who finds Yorick’s skull and thinks a murder has been committed, give an idea of the humor and depth of “Headset.”

Stoppard or Ayckbourn might have been able to turn it into something to chew on, but even solid performances by Kirk Wall as the son and Jon Sharp as the stepfather can’t go beyond what they’re given to do.

“Headset,” Richard Basehart Theatre, 21028-B Victory Blvd., Woodland Hills; Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 4:30 p.m. Indefinitely. $15; (213) 475-5160. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.