It’s a ‘Wonderful Life’ -- for the BlackBerry crowd

In the stage version of his memoir “Tuesdays With Morrie,” Mitch Albom learns from a beloved mentor, whose health is deteriorating, that “dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else.”

That messages returns, in very different form, in his comic play “And the Winner Is,” receiving its West Coast premiere in a Laguna Playhouse production that opened Saturday.

A disheveled lump of humanity pops out of a chute and thuds to a stop in “Winner’s” opening moments. This turns out to be Tyler Johnes, a no-longer-young movie actor who, after gaining fame in a series of disposable buddy-cop flicks, earned respect and an Oscar nomination in an art-house film. Years of alcohol and drug abuse have resulted in a fatal heart attack. Hence his arrival at a decrepit bar/celestial way station, where a snowy-haired gent awaits to guide him toward new perspectives. Think: “It’s a Wonderful Life” as updated for today’s BlackBerry-toting, weekend-box-office-obsessed crowd.

Where “Morrie,” presented at Laguna Playhouse in 2004, delivered gentle insights and free-flowing tears, “Winner” dispenses somewhat less gentle insights and punch line-triggered laughs. The result is diverting, although it probably won’t make a snug little home for itself in a corner of theatergoers’ minds in the way that “Morrie” did.

Tyler’s unconventional entrance in “Winner” is made still funnier by the fact that he arrives only half-dressed, in boxers, crookedly buttoned shirt and just one sock. As embodied by Kelly Boulware, he is a strapping, rugged-looking guy who believably might have earned a fan base playing one half of a police duo that goes undercover as Chippendales dancers.

The cobwebbed bar that Tyler drops into seems, in John Berger’s set design, to be from an earlier era. Also from an earlier time is the archaically dressed, Irish-accented older gent (Nicolas Coster) who awaits him.

Tyler is, at first, puffed full of self-importance, snarkily referring to his new acquaintance as “Lucky Charms man” and worrying how Variety might spin the story of his waking up in a bar hours before the Oscars. Yet Boulware’s Tyler also projects idealism and open-heartedness -- qualities that Tyler has mislaid but not lost entirely.

Coster’s Seamus, meanwhile, turns out to be the sort of chap who, however kindly he might be, takes mirthful delight in trying to tame Tyler with the heavenly Taser he activates whenever Tyler takes the Lord’s name in vain.

Director Andrew Barnicle and his actors find zest and warmth in the play’s first act, as Tyler, gradually grasping his state of affairs, relives moments with his estranged spouse (Ann Marie Lee) and humorously reencounters his agent (Jeff Marlow), former buddy and cop-movie costar (Brent Schindele) and trophy girlfriend (Annie Abrams). Julie Keen’s costumes cheekily boost the hilarity, as do David Edwards’ thundering sound design and Paulie Jenkins’ otherworldly lighting.

Although this remains entertaining in Act 2, the plotting turns ever more predictable and the Hollywood stereotypes become increasingly hackneyed.

Perhaps audiences will forgive these transgressions. “Winner” shares with Albom’s bestselling “Morrie” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” the subject of life and the lessons it teaches. People love that topic and no doubt will continue to applaud it.

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‘And the Winner Is’

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

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays; also 7 p.m. June 25

Ends: July 2

Price: $20 to $59

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

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes