‘Hollywood Ever After’ Misses Target

Once upon a time M.J. Anderson had a promising story idea and it must have been pitched something like this:

Since Hollywood discriminates against talented women of substance, let a team of feminist screenwriters profit from the sexism by hiring a bozo male as a front. While the women write the scripts, the brain-dead male takes meetings. Call the not-so-fantastic premise “Hollywood Ever After” and stage it at the Tiffany Theatre.

So far so good. But just like the industry she hoped to lampoon, Anderson allowed the gap between concept and reality to grow like a cancer. The farce is stillborn. Whatever mistakes “Hollywood Ever After” could make were made. Whatever feminist statements were intended now hover like shadows from some long-forgotten story meeting. This disaster gives sitcom a bad name.

“Hollywood Ever After” stars Dr. Susan Forward, radio therapist and author of the bestseller “Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them.” Forward portrays a frustrated screenwriter who teams with Patty McCormack and Linda Doucett (of HBO’s “Larry Sanders Show”). Together, the women swiftly write an exploitation script that becomes the object of a fierce studio bidding war. The screenwriters enlist a shoe salesman as their Stepford writer, but Mr. Nice Guy predictably grows into an egomaniac.

What’s mystifying is how the women writers are suddenly the least interesting performers onstage. Thanks to the text and Stephen Rothman’s direction, an ensemble of men swiftly portray a variety of caricatures from the screenwriter’s imaginations and from the film industry. These macho guys are self-indulgent, confident, oppressive, and steal our attention from the women’s predicament.

But that’s Hollywood.

* “Hollywood Ever After,” Tiffany Theatre, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 7 p.m. Dark Dec. 23-26. Ends Feb. 6. $22.50. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 2 hours.