Hold the laughs till next year

Laughter abounds in “Groundlings for a Thousand, Alex!,” which returns in January after the troupe’s first-ever holiday show in December. Smartly staged by Karen Maruyama, this latest melange of improvisations and sketches reminds us again why the comedy institution is more than the sum of its hilarious parts.

Those parts include several breakout turns from the alternating writer-performers. Groundlings veteran Mitch Silpa has a field day, from “Chair”-covetous office drone to unwieldy child of divorced Larry Dorf in “Help Daddy.” Silpa and the redoubtable Jordan Black devour “What’s New,” a TV Guide sendup using audience suggestions. “Taking the Blaine,” by Mikey Day and Michael Naughton, finds Silpa channeling a certain street magician with convulsive results.

Day, his boyishness countered by ruthless comic attack, is another standout. “Our Space” pairs him with co-author Edi Patterson, a witty comic discovery, as dippy newlyweds infatuated with their blog. “Name of the Father” pits Day’s wretched child performer against unfettered Steven Pierce. Dorf and Tim Brennen have a blast with their voice-overs in “Phony Baloney.” The men dive into “Virtual Reality Check,” featuring some of Maruyama’s brightest maneuvers. And the finale, “Mathblasters,” a game show with questions rendered inaudible by trip-hopping hosts, goes for broke.

As ever, the band -- music director Willie Etra, Howard Greene and Larry Treadwell -- rocks, with sly programming choices. Some improv segments betray preparation, and a sketch show is a sketch show. Yet the reason that the Groundlings keep dropkicking talent into sitcoms and films is on full display in this representative romp.

-- David C. Nichols

“Groundlings for a Thousand, Alex!,” Groundlings Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A. Reopens Jan 5. 8 p.m. Fridays, 8 and 10 p.m. Saturdays. Ends Jan. 27. Adult audiences. $20. (323) 934-4747, Ext. 37. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

*

‘Three Lefts’ takes some wrong turns

Christmas lights plus stepladder equals catastrophe in Christina Bunner’s new play, “Three Lefts.” Talk about being hung up about the holidays.

Calamity gets the show off to a dramatic start, but thereafter the presentation, self-produced by Bunner at the Lounge Theatre, bogs down in uninteresting family conflict.

The festive home depicted onstage is, as it turns out, the set for a play within the play. Its performance comes to a halt when the aforementioned accident nearly duplicates a family tragedy that befell the play’s author, Stephen (Shane Callahan). The incident leaves him jangled, which is how his brother, Luke (Matt Bushell), finds him when he shows up for the big night.

These two have a lot of unfinished business, much of which lingers from the tragedy. With the performance a shambles and their emotions piqued, the brothers commence the fight to end all fights, refereed by the actors cast in Stephen’s play (Marilyn Rising and Dennis W. Hall).

The situation is contrived, the analysis little evolved beyond Psych 101, but director Mark Wilkinson does what he can to establish an atmosphere in which both comedy and drama ensue from all of the tearing of hair and beating of chests.

The show is fortunate to have Callahan twisting himself into pretzel shapes as sweet but neurotic Stephen and to have Bushell swaggering about, nearly oblivious to his own traumas, as Luke. Both find humanity in this outlandish tale.

-- Daryl H. Miller

“Three Lefts,” the Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends Dec. 17. $15. (310) 967-1310 or www.plays411. Running time: 55 minutes.

*

Whimsy, violence clash in ‘Rage’

One morning, delusional Warren (Reed Rudy) shoots an intruder -- his business partner -- whom he suspects of cheating with his wife, Helen (Therese McLaughlin). After Tim (Michael Sean McGuinness), Warren’s lawyer, clears him on a technicality, his wife hides out in male drag as secretary to eccentric Mr. Norton (Ned Schmidtke), who deplores noise.

Helen replaces classics-spouting Tennel (Kevin Fabian), who changes his name to Fennel and opens a video store, where a streetwise nymphet (Rachel Castillo) and her hair-trigger brother (Karl Maschek) alter his destiny.

Retired cop Tyler (Jeff Swarthout) and active-duty Agee (Ross Mackenzie) trail Warren, hoping he’ll slip up. Chris (Daniel Jay Shore), Tim’s lover, buys himself a gun, since it’s “cheaper than therapy,” and one for Tim. -- “It’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

These archetypes inhabit “All the Rage” at the Attic Theatre & Film Center. This determined West Coast premiere of Keith Reddin’s dark comedy about the human impulse sports noteworthy designs in director Brian Shnipper’s faded wood set and Matt Richter’s rich lighting, and some capable acting.

However, the mix of raw and whimsical doesn’t exactly gel, which also plagued the 2000 film version, “It’s the Rage.” Both cops seem like “Law & Order” refugees, while the siblings are pure Tarantino. Rudy is proficient as Warren, less raging than cranky. That sums up this respectable and yet inconclusive effort.

-- D.C.N.

“All the Rage,” Attic Theatre & Film Center, 5429 W. Washington Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Ends Dec. 16. (323) 525-0600, Ext. 2, or www.attictheatre.org. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.