Pain? It’s just meat for her jaded skewer

Years of rejection, both professional and romantic, honed the caustic, kvetching persona actress-singer Jackie Hoffman has parlayed into hilarious one-woman shows that have made her a cult figure on the New York club scene.

But have recent changes -- including a two-year Broadway stint in “Hairspray” and a steady boyfriend -- undermined the alienated hostility that fuels her edgy performances? Has success softened Jackie Hoffman?

Not a chance, thank goodness. Newfound recognition and stability might have seduced mere mortals into seeing the glass as half full. But in “The Kvetching Continues,” her latest solo effort, it’s clear that Hoffman’s jaded cynicism has triumphed over good fortune. If nothing else, she’s a survivor.

Mercilessly acerbic and devastatingly funny, “Kvetching” is a whirlwind tour of Hoffman’s career, family and love life filtered through her keen eye for absurdity and the lifelong baggage of Jewish guilt.

From the moment she enters, carrying a suitcase and belting an Ethel Merman-esque “Can you believe it? I’m in Hollywood!” the diminutive Hoffman’s bigger-than-life presence electrifies the stage in classic showbiz style.

Hoffman’s Broadway aspirations were apparent from an early age (“By the time I was 9, I was a gay man,” she admits). Yet success hasn’t compromised her outsider’s perch. Even after the accolades she received for her trio of quirky cameo roles in “Hairspray,” she couldn’t get an audition for “Fiddler on the Roof” -- because she was too Jewish.

She goes on to recall how she once “went to a colonoscopy right after an audition to get my pride back.” Of course, some of her own career choices have been self-defeating, as she demonstrates with her audition monologue from “Twelve Angry Men.”

Complementing her brassy satirical songs and perfect comic delivery, Hoffman’s hysterical spot-on characterizations skewer celebrities (Rosie O’Donnell, Mary Tyler Moore, Bernadette Peters), single Jewish women (specimens from a Hadassah mixer transported to a gay sex club), and, of course, her mother, who taught her to see the dark cloud in every silver lining.

Cute little kids and adoring couples making out in public enjoy a special place in her pantheon of unprintable scorn. For all her kvetching, Hoffman is clearly enjoying herself onstage.

Breezily departing from Michael Schiralli’s staging, she banters freely with pianist Jeff Rizzo. Obstacles bring out the best in her -- when a fire alarm went off toward the end of her show, she turned the disruption into a chance to rib the gay contingent that makes up a big part of her following: “Oooooo -- will there be firemen?”

Ending next weekend, Hoffman’s all-too-short L.A. stint is the perfect antidote to post-holiday feel-good glow. As she delights in reminding us, “Everything in this world is an opportunity for pain and failure.”

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‘The Kvetching Continues’

Where: Renberg Theatre, L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, 1125 N. McCadden Place, Hollywood

When: 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 8 p.m. Jan. 21, and 7 p.m. Jan. 23

Ends: Jan. 23

Price: $20

Contact: (323) 860-7300

Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes