Classic Farce

It’s a good thing Actors Alley constructed sturdy door frames for the set of “Room Service.” The play, produced in the Storefront space of the El Portal, is a classic farce, with nearly every scene punctuated by a loud slam.

Actors Alley sticks to the comedy as John Murray and Allen Boretz wrote it, revealing why the show was a hit on Broadway in 1937 and why the Marx Brothers film of 1938 remains a classic. “Room Service” is funny without being cynical, complicated without being confusing.

Aspiring impresario Gordon (John Hugo) is trying to get a sure-fire hit play produced before his financing--or lack thereof--collapses like a house of cards. He’s run up a huge tab at the White Way hotel, where the manager, his brother-in-law (Alan Altshuld), has let him overextend his credit. Just as a backer seems willing to fork over $15,000, the hotel’s corporate middle-man Wagner (Jason Kelly) arrives to boot out the cast.

As Gordon, Hugo provides the calm center to the tornado of problems flying around the cast. The role could be overblown, but Hugo keeps it understated so he remains part of the ensemble. As the just-off-the-train naive playwright, Brent Crawford projects honesty, a stark contrast to the schemers around him. Kelly is consistently funny as a blustery and uptight businessman.

Acting quality among the supporting cast was variable. Lila Waters had a nice, but brief, turn as a woman charged with repossessing the writer’s typewriter. Otherwise the women’s characters were weak, if not superfluous. As a Russian waiter who wants to be an actor, Joe Garcia showed that he could do comedy. Then, in an audition for Gordon, he hopped right into drama, drawing something compelling out of the mockingly melodramatic lines.

The action transpires in a 19th-floor room, which Gordon is trying desperately to hold on to. Richard Scully’s set design makes the most of the small stage--which has to accommodate four doors, a window, two beds and other furniture.

Director Jeremiah Morris keeps the 14-person cast moving so it seems like a cramped hotel room, not a crowded stage. The pace is fast, but not frenzied. This production is more in tune with the screwball comedies of the 1930s than the Flying Karamazov Brothers were in last year’s farce-within-a-farce version at the Mark Taper Forum.

BE THERE

“Room Service,” Actors Alley at the El Portal, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. Ends June 7. $16. (818) 508-4200. Running time: 2 hours.