THEATER BEAT : Wedding Jitters Focus of ‘Cold Feet’

It’s an hour before the bride has to leave the cozy confines of her childhood bedroom, get into that wedding dress and go downstairs to marry a man who at the very moment is curled up in a fetal position in the bathroom.

Talk about cold feet. Pamela Wick’s comedy of the same name, handsomely splashed by scenic designer Randal Pastor over the spacious Tamarind Theatre stage, is theater’s answer to a box of beribboned candy--sweet, momentarily filling, nominally surprising.

The bride (the credibly flustered Audrey Rapoport) is propped up in her hour of need by her two best friends--Renee L. Rogers’ conventional young matron who wants her friend to go through with the wedding and Teresa Ganzel’s sassy, sophisticated New Yorker who challenges her to dump the nerd and declare independence.

For what is really a chocolate eclair of a play, director Cynthia Szigeti brings a tangy rhythm to the brisk pacing, and the three performers contribute a sense of style. The women’s lowdown sex talk about past lovers is frosting on the wedding cake.

* “Cold Feet,” Tamarind Theatre, 5919 Franklin Ave., West Hollywood . Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends April 30. $12. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.