THEATER REVIEWS : ‘Shot in the Dark’ Hits Mark on Comic Timing : At Long Beach Playhouse, the cast’s rat-a-tat-tat delivery makes the verbal farce work, but the underlying sense of class warfare misfires.

Be warned: The Long Beach Playhouse’s current production of “A Shot in the Dark” is not to be confused with the identically titled movie with Peter Sellers, the second in the Pink Panther series.

While both lampoon the French law-and-order establishment, the similarity stops there. The Sellers “Shot” is a small wonder of physical comedy; the play, adapted by Harry Kurnitz from Marcel Achard’s “L’Idiote,” is a verbal farce with a maximum of flapping tongues and a minimum of swinging doors.

The doors that do open in this case of the murdered chauffeur are nicely exploited, though, by director J.D. Reichelderfer and actor Jerome Loeb, who milks every second as an old, bent-backed guard slooooowly bringing witnesses in and out of Paul Sevigne’s (Tom Wagner) chamber. After 10, 15, 20 minutes of well-timed gabbing, Loeb’s ridiculous gentleman is just the right rhythmic break.

Things here are set at a less-than-frantic pitch, and Beth Kellerman’s wily maid Josefa is careful not to disturb the tone--even though Josefa is accused of killing the chauffeur. (Who else? She was found naked, next to the corpse, with seemingly incriminating evidence.) Kellerman is unashamedly cute as Josefa, but she’s also smarter than the whole bunch of magistrates and upper-class twits who employ her.

Indeed, the twits--particularly, Monsieur Beaurevers (Ivan Allen)--may have done it.

What seems open-and-shut becomes class warfare; maybe not another “Dreyfus Affair,” as it is described by Sevigne’s uptight boss, LaBlanche (Mitchell Nunn), but upsetting of the social order.

Because of this most French of reasons for comedy, an American cast is not necessarily attuned to the class strata under the nonsense. Not that it couldn’t be: There is, after all, first-rate American Moliere on view from time to time. But Reichelderfer’s cast generally has little more than mastery of verbal timing.

Kellerman, Nunn and Allen have their accents--and attitudes--down pat, but no one is in the comic class of Carl DaSilva as Morestan, Sevigne’s delirious assistant. Like an Art Carney to Wagner’s Jackie Gleason, DaSilva pops in and out of the action, dropping comic firecrackers along the way. He makes this very long play just a tad shorter.

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In the light of DaSilva’s turns, Wagner sometimes seems dazzled and not quite sure what to do next. Wagner captures some of his bureaucrat’s befuddlement and sense of justice, but given that he’s almost always onstage, his muddled accent truly impedes the comedy’s verbal music.

“A Shot in the Dark” is in the classic vein of what Parisians call “boulevard theater,” which always ends happily. The playhouse’s Studio Theatre is the size of some of the boulevard houses, and Steve Shapiro’s set is a nice fit, though it could be much dingier. Donna Fritscheavoids overdoing it with the costumes--not easy to do in a show with so many broad stereotypes.

* “A Shot in the Dark,” Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Ends Nov. 26. $10. (310) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Tom Wagner: Paul Sevigne

Beth Kellerman: Josefa

Carl DaSilva: Morestan

Ivan Allen: Benjamin Beaurevers

Mitchell Nunn: LaBlanche

Merry Simkins: Antoinette

Jilanne St. Clair: Dominique Beaurevers

Jerome Loeb: Guard

A Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre production of Harry Kurnitz’s comedy, adapted from Marcel Achard’s “L’Idiote.” Directed by J.D. Reichelderfer. Set: Steve Shapiro. Lights: Elon Abrams. Costumes: Donna Fritsche.