STAGE REVIEWS : ‘HOME AGAIN’ LOADED WITH TASTELESS JOKES

Note to playwright Jim MacNerland: Alcoholics aren’t funny. Even though Dean Hill displays the only inspired comic sense in director David Michael Weiss’ cast for MacNerland’s “Home Again,” at the Complex, Hill’s drunken father is a truly crass creation that fits into the play’s real identity as a sitcom.

The signs are all there: Weiss’ flat, bright lighting, the snappy bits easily slotted between commercial breaks, and a hackneyed plot involving a son (Karl Makinen) escaping a broken marriage for his impossibly dysfunctional Chicago family. He futilely tries to clean up the domestic mess around him, but what really needs a scrubbing are MacNerland’s impossible plot complications, his endless, unfunny running gags, and a tasteless mean-spiritedness.

“Home Again,” the Complex, 6468 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood, Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends March 29. $7-$12; (213) 466-1767. Running time: 2 hours.