Writer quickly runs out of ‘Bright Ideas’

When his child was born, he rushed from the delivery room to the area’s best preschool, where he signed onto the waiting list. In the intervening three years, he and his wife have run themselves ragged just to keep pace with the overachieving parents around them -- the ones who immerse their youngsters in classical music and foreign languages, in dance classes and skating lessons, all in hopes of putting their children on the fast track to success.

Now it’s preschool time, and a spot has yet to open at that school. Drastic measures are called for.

So begins the comedy “Bright Ideas,” being given its West Coast premiere at Laguna Playhouse. The premise, a genuine nightmare for many parents, yields 20 minutes of sitcom-ish humor before shifting into a bleaker mode. Insufficiently justified, this new tone proves difficult for writer Eric Coble to sustain.

Genevra (Pat Caldwell) and Joshua (Bo Foxworth) are first observed at a preschool’s playground. This isn’t the place they hope to send their son, but since they don’t yet have a spot at the preferred school, they’re inspecting their options.

Pleasant and patient, these seemingly in-control, first-time parents -- who so earnestly employ the endearment “Honey” when addressing each other or their unseen child -- are about to undergo a radical transformation. It begins when ill-supervised activities at the backup school result in the ugly-sounding collapse of a playground slide. The change continues in encounters with high-powered parents (Maura Vincent, Larry Raben and April Ortiz, in ever-changing roles) who’ve already secured places at the top school.

From modest backgrounds, Genevra and Joshua desperately want something better for their child. That deeply human impulse doesn’t, however, rationalize what happens next. Nor do continuing stylistic references to Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”

Director Andrew Barnicle uses ever more elaborate visual tricks to try to pump up the energy, and the actors, God bless ‘em, give all they’ve got. Caldwell cunningly transforms from overwhelmed mom to “Terminator”-tough super-parent, while Foxworth remains achingly human, even as the plot compels him to make whiplash shifts between ultra-sensitive parent and trigger-tempered partner in crime.

Though curiously game-show-like in appearance, Dwight Richard Odle’s set facilitates swift changes of locale as scenic elements emerge from behind a series of curtains. It takes more than cleverness, however, to mask certain absurdities, as when nefarious plans are shouted in one room while the intended victim sits nearby, separated only by a swinging door.

For as it turns out, “Bright Ideas” doesn’t have any.

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‘Bright Ideas’

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. No 7 p.m. performance March 20.

Ends: March 20

Price: $30 to $54

Contact: (949) 497-2787 or www.LagunaPlayhouse.com

Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Bo Foxworth...Joshua Bradley

Pat Caldwell...Genevra Bradley

April Ortiz, Maura Vincent, Larry Raben...multiple roles

By Eric Coble. Director Andrew Barnicle. Assistant director Shelley Butler. Set Dwight Richard Odle. Lights Paulie Jenkins. Costumes Julie Keen. Sound David Edwards. Flying effects by ZFX Inc. Production stage manager Nancy Staiger.