COMEDY REVIEW : Way Off Is Not Always on the Mark

Orange County’s boom in home-grown sketch comedy, improvisational and scripted, appears to be more than a fluke. Touched off a few years back by Fractured Mirror (in semi-retirement these days) and institutionalized by the indefatigable Orange County Crazies, the county’s comedy cottage industry has also found room for OxyMoron (a Crazies offshoot) and “Off Center Comedy,” a public access cable TV series produced in Costa Mesa.

Then there’s the Way Off Broadway Playhouse, better known for its theatrical offerings but getting deeper and deeper into comedy. Its fifth “Off the Wall Comedy Nite,” featuring sketches, improvisational bits and live music (and even dance bits), opens the second half of its two-weekend run tonight.

The comedy nights began in March, 1990, as one-weekend fillers between regular productions, starring playhouse regulars and playing primarily to friends and family of the cast. The comedy nights also allowed a chance to take students in the playhouse workshops and “get them out in front of the public,” said playhouse leader Tony Reverditto. “It’s just a chance for the actors to go out on a limb.”

What started as “playtime” is getting a little more serious. The current effort, titled “Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime”, is the first to expand to two weekends, the first to include live segue music (guitar, bass and rhythm box) and the first to bring on dancers. (The troupe has more than just an extra weekend performances in its goals, though. “We’re out to get a comedy/variety series,” said Reverditto, ever starry-eyed. In the meantime, he hopes to sell some of the skits to existing TV shows and maybe tour a show to comedy clubs and other venues.)

On evidence of the opening night of “Summertime,” played to a half-capacity house (on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, it should be noted), the troupe has spark in abundance but needs to spend a little more time on its sense of humor.

The summer-themed show takes on everything from shopping for bathing suits to lifeguard worship to signing high-school yearbooks. As is often the case with sketch comedy, the scattershot approach is hit and miss: the sketches often meandered in predictable territory while allowing some intriguing comic ideas to go undeveloped.

Of the more successful routines, some allowed for a bit of character development--a running bit on the buildup to a wedding worked well--while others were blackout-type sketches that didn’t clutter or pad their straightforward comic premises. A skit on a pair of difficult ice-cream shop customers, for instance, hits quickly and benefits from some sharp comic acting, as does the lifeguard sketch, “SOS.”

The 15-member cast is uniformly likable and appealing, but when it comes to the sketches shaped by audience input, improv skills are shown to vary widely. The situation is complicated by often-awkward setups, but some of the performers repeatedly showed a tendency to fall back quickly on obvious visual sex gags rather than explore the offered scenarios.

This troupe’s strength is its energy and looseness.

Way Off the Wall Comedy Nite V: “Summertime, Summertime, Sum, Sum, Summertime” today and Saturday at 9 p.m. at the Way Off Broadway Playhouse, 1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana. $10. (714) 547-8997.