Scattered Pleasures, Laughs in Long Beach’s ‘Timing’

A man rushes into a cafe. He’s distraught; it seems nothing is turning out the way he wants it to. “Relax,” a friend tells him. “You’re in a Philadelphia.” The sufferer of a Philadelphia, we learn, gets exactly the opposite of his stated desire.

OK, so maybe “All in the Timing” won’t coin a popular catch phrase. But neither will David Ives’ anthology of six short comic plays, now at International City Theatre in Long Beach, put viewers in that dreaded Philly mind-set. In fact, it’s already won over a number of artistic directors who have made it one of the most-produced shows at resident theaters nationwide.

The show is a crowd-pleaser, no doubt, especially if the crowd is a fairly literate one. The pieces are tightly written, at times very funny, and sprinkled with references to Shakespeare, Philip Glass and Trotsky. Trotsky?

But if its reputation promises, say, a New York City, prepare for a bit of a letdown. “All in the Timing” more closely resembles a nice suburb--pleasant, sophisticated but palpably limited. And those limits are only magnified in director Jessica Kubzansky’s staging, which too often straddles the border between cute and cloying.

At his best, Ives is a virtuoso wordsmith, with a keen ear for linguistic ambiguity. In “Words, Words, Words,” a trio of laboratory chimps tries to peck out “Hamlet” on typewriters. On page, the chimps are capable of mere gibberish, but they speak with remarkably Bard-like eloquence when bickering or complaining of writer’s block.

An equally amusing piece teaches the basics of Unamunda, “da linka universahl!” (The Universal Language). A veritable Babel of pidgin tongues, Unamunda becomes the language of love for instructor Don (Matt Walker) and his terminally shy, stuttering pupil Dawn (Susanne Blakeslee). Much of the fun consists in hearing Uzi-like dialogue conducted in a made-up language that sounds a bit like a Swede wrestling with beginner Spanish.

Pleasures elsewhere are scattered. “Sure Thing” is a clever yet mostly charmless look at the endless mutability of conversation, in this case between a young couple (Jeff Marcus and Alina Phelan) who meet in a bar. A parody of “Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread” is the very definition of a one-joke skit. And the aforementioned “The Philadelphia” is, along with the aptly titled “Variations on the Death of Trotsky,” barely up to the level of TV’s odious “Saturday Night Live.”

The rubber-faced Walker is the standout in the ensemble quartet. Unfortunately, director Kubzansky has ladled dollops of cuteness throughout, from awkward choreography during the blackouts to Maury McIntyre’s headache-inducing score, which sounds like a carnival in hell. It’s almost enough to put you in a Philadelphia, or maybe a cold, blustery Chicago.

* “All in the Timing,” International City Theatre, Long Beach City College, Clark Street and Harvey Way, Long Beach. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m., Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends June 16. $18. (310) 420-4128. Running time: 2 hours.