‘Staccato’ Drives Hard at Tiffany

David Knapp’s “Staccato” at the Tiffany sweeps us along for a time with its driving music, sprightly dialogue, well-measured performances and ebullient direction.

Playwright Knapp, whose characters fire dialogue at one another with staccato rapidity, manages enough pithy aphorisms to temporarily disguise the fact that his play is meandering and somewhat mean-spirited. However, that realization ultimately dawns, despite the most heroic efforts on the part of director Ron Link and his capable cast.

Fabled but fading Hollywood screenwriter Cameron McAllister (Eugene Robert Glazer) teams with up-and-coming young Gary (Cameron Watson) to revive his career. Gary is involved in a destructive relationship with the gorgeous, corrupt Julie (Sarah MacDonnell), who, unknown to Gary, was also once Cameron’s lover. The vengeful Cameron colludes with powerful studio head Jon Apperstein (Anthony Russell) to destroy Julie and free the gullible Gary from her pernicious influence.

Despite all its surface trendiness and wit, the play has a disturbingly medieval tone. Highly sexual and seductive, Julie is a bitch destroyer, the source of all evil, who must be metaphorically burned at the stake. Knapp tacks on another female character, Gary’s dithering, lovable mom Annette (Edith Fields), perhaps in an attempt to counterbalance Julie’s unmotivatedly malevolent intensity.

Given the play’s lack of a morally purposeful context, Knapp’s characters seem dangerously stereotypical. Pointed amorality may be what Knapp intends, but when the play takes a sharp detour into female bashing it’s pointlessly ugly.

* “Staccato,” Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends March 19. $22.50-$25. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.