‘Death Defying Acts’: Jokes on Life Support

The lime-green signs on the box-office window warn of “MATURE SUBJECT MATTER.”

But in the case of “Death Defying Acts,” a 1995 trio of one-act comedies now at the International City Theatre in Long Beach, Woody Allen recycling an unfortunate joke about the difference between sushi and, well, something else doesn’t necessarily indicate maturity. Of any kind. Sign-wise, COARSE AND TIRED ONE-LINERS might be more like it.

Audiences like to laugh, and they’ll forgive a lot, even if the laughs are on the sour side. Sour doesn’t begin to describe Allen’s contribution to “Death Defying Acts,” titled “Central Park West.”

In it, a shrink (Eileen T’Kaye) confronts her friend Carol (Beverly Sanders), who has been flinging with the shrink’s persistently unfaithful husband (Quinn K. Redeker). Carol’s husband (Michael Rothhaar) arrives late and joins in the accusation festival.

With a misfiring pistol, Allen rips off Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.” With everything else, Allen rips off Allen. Like too many of his recent, wan movies, “Central Park West” isn’t the work of a man playing into his comic strengths. It’s the work of a man groping for a harsher brand of comic nastiness, in between the Valium and Prozac gags.

Elaine May’s “Hotline” likewise stretches its premise to skinny-taffy length. A suicide phone counselor (Rothhaar) meets his Waterloo in the person of Dorothy (Sanders), an extraordinarily hostile prostitute who’s had it. It’s a good idea for a one-act. In an excellent touch, Dorothy’s early attempts to secure from directory assistance the number of the Suicide Center are complicated by the fact that there’s a coffee shop by that name.

Before long, though, it sputters. And in director Jules Aaron’s production, the handsome unit setting designed by D. Martyn Bookwalter depicting sepia-toned panels of Edward Hopper-era Manhattan has the drawback of shoving Dorothy’s central monologue far upstage.

It’ll be a minority opinion, but, of the three one-acts, I most enjoyed the curtain-raiser: David Mamet’s “An Interview.” Here, the master of obfuscating politesse presents a screening process at the Gates of Hell. A deceased attorney (Redeker) dances around the topic of his misdeeds in life with an “attendant” (Rothhaar).

Why must this man fry for eternity? The attendant’s explanation: “You passed the bar. And you neglected to live forever.”

The whole thing’s a lawyer joke, in effect; so is the Allen one-act, in which the lawyer-husband gets shot in the behind. Mamet’s piece, however, has compactness on its side, and a distinct rhythm.

Director Aaron pushes his actors to keep things moving, to spit out the invective on the fly. The actors obliged as best they could during Saturday’s performance, although the rat-a-tat-tat timing was more along the lines of rat-a . . . tat . . . uh . . . tat. (Run those lines, folks.)

The three writers represented by “Death Defying Acts” trade in very different comic realms of Jewish angst and urban hostility. (Both are intrinsic elements of why we love New York.) In their respective and remarkable careers, Mamet, May and Allen have handed the world so many verbal riches that the laughs literally can’t be counted.

Here, they can. They’re there, and occasionally, they’re satisfying. But they’re not plentiful.

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“Death Defying Acts,” International City Theatre, Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends July 15. $27-$35. (562) 436-4610. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.

Quinn K. Redeker, Michael Rothhaar, Eileen T’Kaye, Beverly Sanders, Reg Basco Hernandez, Joy Jacobson: Ensemble

Written by David Mamet, Elaine May and Woody Allen. Directed by Jules Aaron. Scenic and lighting design by D. Martyn Bookwalter. Costumes by Kim DeShazo. Sound by Paul Fabre. Stage manager Kyle Keller.