STAGE REVIEWS : ‘The Art of Dining’: Not Very Filling

Tina Howe’s “The Art of Dining,” at the Tracy Roberts Theatre, is mostly nouvelle cuisine : attractive, but not filling.

Three tables of customers ooohh and aaahh over the menu and the food they’re served, without good reasons for asking for our attention. They’re only a front, anyway, for the minimalist vignette of Ellen (Kathleen Bailey) and Cal (Macaulay Bruton), who have started a gourmet restaurant in their home.

Sitcom is a major ingredient, especially given Tracy Roberts’ energetic direction. Three women (Myra Turley, Melissa McFarlane and Linda Bon) celebrating a birthday do a Marx Brothers routine switching their main courses. A silly, neophyte writer (Carol Greco), who can’t see without her glasses, refuses to wear them with hoped-for knee-slapping results. What’s for dessert?

“The Art of Dining,” Tracy Roberts Theatre, 141 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills. Fridays-Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.; Sundays, 5 p.m. Indefinite. $17.50; (310) 271-1478. Running time: 2 hours.