Theater Review : The Crazies’ ‘Orange Side’ Hits the Mock : Unfazed by its bevy of rookies, the comedy-improv team manages one of its strongest concept acts to date.

Group comedy-improv, like baseball, is a business. So a team like the Orange County Crazies always faces the prospect of losing players who head north of the county line for work.

Such is the case with the current Crazies team, which has more than its share of rookies. This unit doesn’t appear, though, to be easily fazed just because some members are new to the game.

Consider that A) the group had finished a performance last Saturday afternoon for the jury in the O.J. Simpson trial, and B) it worked up as much comedic lather as it could with a thin Saturday night crowd for its new show, “Orange Side Story.”

In the former, the Crazies reportedly cajoled the jury into taking part in some improv and, in the latter, managed one of their strongest concept acts to date.

Of course, “West Side Story” is ripe for satire, and the Crazies easily find many ways to insert Orange County all through the love story of Chuy (smart, talented Kevin Bryan) and Maria Nguyen (the goofy Aileen Mallari) and the battle between warring gardener clans--the Latino Weeds and the Asian Shrubs. Trade switchblades for leaf blowers, and you get the idea.

Director Cherie Kerr and group know the musical, and you should too if you want to catch every silly and witty nugget. In fact, non-fans of “West Side Story” might as well stay away altogether; with eight original skits sprinkled between “Orange Side Story’s” nine scenes, the musical spoof is truly the evening’s spine.

Business like Bryan singing “Maria Nguyen” to the beat of “Ma-ri-a,” Mallari singing about her expanded Orange County consumer activities in “Somewhere” or the Weeds and Shrubs trying to knock each other out with their blowers are bits of priceless clowning. (Question: Why do these blowers suck opponents’ faces into the devices? Wouldn’t they blow them away?)

*

As usual, the clowning not only doesn’t avoid racial stereotypes, but positively revels in them as well--Rich Flin’s yammering Asian guy being an especially loud example. Interestingly, the musical’s original ethnic division is somewhat reversed, with the Latino Sharks now Asian, and the Anglo Jets now Latino.

Through the evening, but particularly with the musical spoof, keyboard accompanist Tom Zink helps the tunes along even when the cast’s rough voices don’t.

In the skits, Bryan also makes his mark as Timothy McVeigh sweating under the third degree, but the women of the Crazies make the strongest impression--especially the funny chemistry of Linda Bryan, LizAnne and Janet Thornton as twisted Andrews Sisters going for their “Unplugged” comeback.

David Anthony Bonilla (with solid aid from Linda Bryan, Drake Doremus and Dan Van Voorhis) skewers O.J. Simpson fanatics from the standpoint of a father who has watched way too much of the proceedings.

Still, the Simpson trial is beginning to feel stale as comedic material, and the group will be wise to drop it in its next edition, just as it has dropped virtually all mention of the Orange County bankruptcy in this edition.

More than ever with a Crazies evening, this is Kerr’s show--she is the primary writer of nearly all the material, which gives the skits an uncommonly unified tone. Ideally, group comedy also should have group writing, with a variety of takes and styles. Maybe now that the rookies have settled in, Kerr will find some writers among them.

* “Orange Side Story,” Orange County Crazies Theatre, Pacific Symphony Center, 115 E. Santa Ana Blvd., Santa Ana. Saturdays, 8 p.m. $12. (714) 550-9900. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes. An Orange County Crazies production. Directed by Cherie Kerr. With David Anthony Bonilla, Linda Bryan, Kevin Bryan, Drake Doremus, Rich Flin, LizAnne, Aileen Mallari, Janet Thornton, Dan Van Voorhis. Musical director: Tom Zink. Lights: Chris Matthews.