‘Lettice’ Is Light as a Feather Sometimes

At times, theatrical lions stop roaring--and burp. Peter Shaffer’s 1990 Tony-winning comedy “Lettice & Lovage,” now at Actors Co-op’s Crossley Terrace Theatre, is a pop diversion for a writer whose louder works include “Equus” and “Amadeus.”

In light of the play’s innate triviality, its righteous denunciation of the “mere” in modern life is strikingly ironic. But, despite some author-in-dialogue screeds about the death of culture and the ugliness of modern architecture--and director Valentine Mayer’s miscasting in a couple of minor but crucial roles--the tone is buoyant to the point of weightlessness.

The lurid on-the-job improvisations of histrionic tour guide Lettice Douffett (Elaine Welton-Hill) spark the ire of Lottie Schoen (Kristina Lankford), a fiercely repressed bureaucrat and Lettice’s boss. Hilariously opposite personalities, the heroines ultimately find stability in their unlikely friendship--after a silly, overlong crisis in the third act, that is.

Lankford overdoes the stiff-upper-lip bit, but the luminous Hill leaves no eccentricity unturned as the extravagant Lettice. Bradley Kaye’s wonderfully detailed set rounds out Shaffer’s bagatelle, which if it doesn’t precisely live up to Lettice’s gushy credo--”Enlarge, enlighten, enliven”--at least enlivens.

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* “Lettice & Lovage,” Crossley Terrace Theatre, 1760 N. Gower St., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends June 27. $17. (323) 462-8460. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.