Eccentrics romp in ‘Fuddy’ funhouse

Watching “Fuddy Meers,” the 1999 off-Broadway hit now receiving its Los Angeles premiere at the Colony Theatre, comparisons to the writings of Lewis Carroll become glaringly obvious. Like Carroll, playwright David Lindsay-Abaire relishes nonsense, although of a decidedly more profane variety than Carroll’s ever was.

Initially, the play rockets along in fine style, propelled by the kind of bizarre, nonsensical caricatures that are intrinsically Carrollian.

But Carroll’s “Alice” books appealed to young Victorian readers largely because they neatly avoided the moral didacticism and stock characters that then typified children’s literature. Whereas, by the climax of his play, Lindsay-Abaire conscientiously explains each and every plot twist and motivation -- neatly, succinctly and predictably.

It’s a clever but glum summation, one that violates the wacky spirit of the play. After all, do we really need to know that Alice’s adventures were the result of childhood trauma or a psychotic break?

Director David Rose and his intrepid actors leap gamely into the breach of the play’s misplaced intentions, attacking their cartoonish characters with rapier comic timing. For Claire (Denise Dillard), the Alice-like naif of the piece, every day brings another leap down the rabbit hole.

An amnesiac, Claire wakes up each morning without a clue as to who or where she is. Claire reorients herself to the particulars of her past with the help of her conscientious but buffoonish husband Richard (Jonathan Palmer).

This particular morning, however, a mysterious masked man (Donald Sage Mackay) leaps out from under Claire’s bed, announcing that he is “rescuing” her from Richard, whom he insists intends to kill her.

Naturally, a romp ensues, with Claire being spirited away to a country house, while Richard frantically searches for her. The somewhat timeworn device of Claire’s amnesia is enlivened by a parade of eccentrics, each more colorful than the last. There’s Kenny (Michael Reisz), Claire’s pothead son; Gertie (Jodi Carlisle), Claire’s stroke-addled mother; Heidi (Lisa Beezley), a policewoman who isn’t what she appears to be; and Millet (Nick DeGruccio), the mysterious man’s sweet but schizophrenic accomplice.

Oh, did we mention that Millet’s best buddy is a potty-mouthed puppet with a talent for caustic put-downs? As the puppet-wielding Millet, who would be better off on the island of misplaced toys than with his rapacious human confederates, DeGruccio ranks high on the adorability index. And Carlisle is a gold-plated riot as Gertie, whose wittily inverted utterances are a sheer delight.

Robert L. Smith’s malleable set features a wealth of surreal details that let us know we have stepped into another reality. The set walls are festooned with clown heads, birdhouses, chairs suspended in midair.

“Fuddy Meers” is actually Gertie’s garbled pronunciation of “funny mirrors,” a reference to the funhouse mirrors that jog Claire’s memory of her traumatic past.

The title is also a pointed reference to Lindsay-Abaire’s distinctive style, his reflection of reality in the dramatic equivalent of a funhouse mirror. It’s an amusingly skewed representation that loses its charm in hard focus.

*

‘Fuddy Meers’

Where: Colony Theatre, 555 N. 3rd St., Burbank

When: Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 3 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.

Ends: March 9

Price: $25-$28

Contact: (818) 558-7000

Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes