‘Happy Fun Family’ Cold to the Heart

Somewhere there may be a “Happy Fun Family,” but you won’t find it at this show at the Moving Arts. Lee Wochner’s surreal world doesn’t touch our hearts and thus loses our interest--truly an amazing feat for such a short piece.

Marge (Julie Briggs) and her husband Herb (Keith Sellon-Wright) inhabit a one-room set for the 15-year-old production of the hit series “Happy Fun Family.” For them, nothing exists outside this television world that is ruled with unpleasant authority by Marge, the star of the show, who surrounds herself with “nice, well-meaning people who just can’t get their acts together without me,” and insists on having only those problems that can be wrapped up in a 22-minute format.

But on this particular show when she asks Herb her trademark line, “What’s on your agenda?” things begin to go mysteriously wrong. Her “wacky and chipper” next-door neighbor (Susan Mackin) comes in with a problem too serious for the format and her son (James Smith) wants to move out of the house and out of the closet. Her husband Herb begins showing signs of dissension.

Wochner plays with the concept of the 1950s wonderful wife and mild-mannered husband being corrupted into a more 1990s format of crassness and shock appeal. It’s an intriguing idea that could use better packaging. None of the characters catch our sympathies, and director Mary McGuire doesn’t quite manage to remedy the situation. Without the canned laughter used to give the sitcom feel, there might not have been any laughter at all.

* “Happy Fun Family,” Moving Arts, 1822 Hyperion Ave., Silver Lake. Mondays and Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Sept. 30. $10. (213) 665-8961. Running time: 55 minutes.