THEATER REVIEW : ‘Acme Cheese Singles’: Wait for the Second Half

“Acme Cheese Singles,” at Acme Comedy Theatre in North Hollywood, is one of the few sketch comedy shows in which the second half is better than the first.

The first half takes up too many tired topics: a coffeehouse poet, Marcia Brady (please--in the wake of “The Real Live Brady Bunch,” enough is enough), a nun who has to teach her class about sex, a woman who’s turned on when her guy acts like a cad, a pair of rednecks, a therapist who won’t stop analyzing. The first half’s opening musical is mildly funny, but its closing scene about a “ratboy” is less so.

The one sketch in the first half that transcends its tired topic--infomercials--and gets maximum comic mileage from a novel twist in the writing is Doug Jackson’s “TW2000.”

But the second half is markedly more original and just plain funnier. Highlights include two very optimistic young women on a cruise, an extremely sound sleeper (who still needs a better punch line), a sociopathic salad bar employee, a whiner at a bridal shower, a “Euro” salesclerk at a lingerie counter and a weight watcher who’s addicted to coffee.

Especially notable among the talented Acme performers are Byrne Offutt, particularly when he’s manic, Lisa Kushell as the sad sack at the bridal shower, and Robyn Donny as Miss Euro. M.D. Sweeney directed.

* “Acme Cheese Singles,” 5124 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 27. $12-$15. (818) 753-0650. Running time: 2 hours.