THEATER REVIEW : ‘Wives’ Honestly Funny : Play is like a sitcom. But realistic comic timing and authentic humor add something extra.

Rosie Taravella’s “The Wives,” at Ventura Court Theatre, looks an awful lot like a pilot for a TV sitcom. But there’s a little bit more to it than that and, in its final scene, a little bit less.

The setup is simple. The husbands, all employees of Blake Advertising, are off for their annual fishing trip. Nancy Clancy decides the wives should get together for a first annual luncheon just to get to know one another, and for various covert other reasons.

There are five equal roles for five strong actresses (and one pure sitcom mini-romp for a young actor). As usual in this type of play, the five women are as different as can be. Nancy (Christy Noonan) is a typical housewife and an ex-career woman waiting till the kids are gone so she can get back to work. Barb (Patricia Tallman) is pregnant again and not thrilled with it, nor with discussion of her drinking problem.

Aggressive ex-flower child Ingrid (Kendall Hailey), who insists on using her maiden name, quotes Gertrude Stein and has marriage problems of her own, while brittle-witted Jeri (playwright Taravella), on her third husband named Fred, is struggling as an aging television commercial actress and upset because her teen-age son is back in Juvenile Hall. The final member of this familiar motley crew is Heidi (Erin McLaughlin), the bimbotic fiancee of the firm’s biggest moneymaker, proud as punch of her breast implants.

What places “The Wives” in a slightly different groove than network-type sitcom is that the writing is not just funny, it’s often witty. Taravella has a nifty knack for letting the characters breed the real humor, rather than relying on one-liners. Her wives are honestly drawn, and they speak with authentic voices. And the actresses who play them are strong across the board and have a solid understanding of the honest humor in the dialogue.

The just-right comic timing of the production is director Charles Nelson Reilly’s work. He knows the realistic rhythms that are inherent in the script, where the builds are that lead to laughs, and how to honestly reach those peaks.

Christopher Alessi is funny albeit a bit overboard as a young actor who, dressed as a gondolier, delivers pizza. But it is in his final scene that the writing suddenly arcs back to the wild-and-crazy, anything-for-a-laugh ‘60s, with a denouement to match. It is out of sync with the rest of the writing and a little jarring.

WHERE AND WHEN

What: “The Wives.”

Location: Ventura Court Theatre, 12417 Ventura Court, Studio City.

Hours: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Oct. 2.

Price: $15.

Call: (213) 660-8587.