THEATER / ROBERT KOEHLER : Waaaaaay Off Broadway : Santa Ana Players’ ‘In Search of Love’ Should Seek Laughs First

Although it’s their appellation, “The Way Off Players” doesn’t fully do justice to the resident comedy sketch group at Way Off Broadway Playhouse in Santa Ana.

“Waaaaaay Off” is more like it.

And although its the title of the group’s latest evening of sketches, “In Search of Love” doesn’t cut it either.

“In Search of a Show” rings much, much truer.

Now, if director Tony Reverditto and his would-be merry band were doing their act in a living room for friends, no one would object. In a party atmosphere, it’s amazing what friends will tolerate.

In a theater charging admission, that’s something else again. “In Search of Love,” to put it mildly, does not put one in a loving mood.

Like watching a pitcher who can’t get the ball near the plate, you begin to wonder if there’s one laugh in this show’s first act.

Jane Sharp’s solo stand-up (the first of three solos, followed by two stunningly bad singing exercises by Wendy Salas and Anya that were not “Star Search” parodies) comes close, just because Sharp seems as if she’s trying to be herself.

Everyone else acts--and writes--as if they’re trying to be part of some ‘90s “Laugh-In” revival.

In other words, with few exceptions, the Way Off-ers serve up a long series of blackout sketches. But the virtue of the blackout sketch is that it’s on and off quickly, ends with a punch, and even if it doesn’t hit, the next one might.

Except for a punny bit on a certain kind of furniture we won’t reveal, no scenes are taut enough to be classic blackout material, nor are they developed enough to be true sketches.

A few ideas are flowing through a series of bits titled “Mail Order Bride I-III” (the bride is literally sent via UPS) and a ghoulish vision of what I assume to be the Costa Mesa Freeway in “Freeway Connector” (in which each actor-driver zips around holding on a toy car in their hands). But after a few funny moments, the scenes stumble off stage.

There’s a lot of stumbling, in fact, from a light board that brings to mind the technical breakdown at Jurassic Park, to actors unsure if they have the right cue, to piano accompanist Eric Marchese grappling for notes on various ragtime interludes. (Why ragtime for a love-themed show?)

And as far as love goes--which, in comedy, eventually means sex--there is virtually none. Things get just a bit raunchy in Act II, as when Godfrey Huguley’s supermarket customer sweats it out as a cashier asks for price checks on various sex devices, or the cast lines up for class at “Kissing School.”

It’s a sad comment on our AIDS-plagued society that we now produce sexless movies about sex like “Indecent Proposal” and sexless shows about sex like “In Search of Love.”

But the least we should expect from a comedy show--sexless or not--is some comedy. Certainly, Reverditto and company should expect it of themselves.

*”In Search of Love,” Way Off Broadway Playhouse, 1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana. Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. Indefinitely. $8. (714) 547-8997. Running time: 2 hours. A Way Off Players production. Sketches written by cast members. Directed by Tony Reverditto. With Steven Dedola, K. Ray Hayden, Godfrey Huguley, JoLynn Jones, Karen Kawolics, Helen Lasater, Valerie J. Ludwig, Steve McCammon, David Alan Nelson, Tony Reverditto, Raemi Rollans, Jane Sharp, Laura Spurlock, Ricci Thomas, Jan Tiehen. Lights and Sound: The Way Off Players.