Moon Over Buffalo

Ken Ludwig's daft homage to the backstage boulevardier vehicles of the 1930s and '40s is nobody's classic, but it's hard to care when laughing one's head off. After scoring with revivals of "Light Up the Sky" and "Room Service," director Bjørn Johnson manages a theatrical hat trick by staging this faintly synthetic crowd pleaser with such brio that it might as well be one of the chestnuts that author Ludwig roasts.

Set in 1955, the script examines George and Charlotte Hay, two bickering, downwardly spiraling hambones first seen in rehearsal for "Cyrano de Bergerac," which their seedy rep company performs with five actors. Stir in Rosalind, the Hay's daughter, who left the stage for advertising; Howard, her weatherman fiancé; company manager Paul, her former fiancé; ingénue Eileen, who has unsettling news for straying George; lawyer Richard, who pines for Charlotte; and wardrobe mistress Ethel, George's stone-deaf mother-in-law, and the elements for farce are in place.

Johnson gives this theater buff's valentine, which brought Carol Burnett back to Broadway in 1995, a loopy, breakneck approach that counters its calculations. Slamming doors and batting forth one-liners around designer James Spencer and Zachery B. Guiler's serviceable set, his cast is adept, starting with leads David Ross Paterson and Wendy Phillips as George and Charlotte. Paterson has a field day as the grandiloquent George, vocally less resonant than originator Philip Bosco but even more organic in the hairpin turns and physical slapstick. His Act 2 drunk scene alone is worth the price of admission. Phillips is a softer, less Olympian comic grande dame than Burnett, but she certainly devours the face-offs and Charlotte's pendulum swings of reaction.

Katie Costick gives daughter Roz a precise, arch comic spin, John Bobek's naiveté serves stage-struck Howard to a tee, and Benjamin Burdick's whip-crack delivery registers to delightful effect as Paul. Laetitia Leon's dewy-eyed climber, John D. LeMay's stalwart attorney, and Norma Campbell's bone-dry costume nemesis complete a more human-scaled troupe than this much-produced pastiche often deploys.

Whooshing about in A. Jeffrey Schoenberg's period costumes, executing B.H. Barry's fight direction, and bathed in Sammy Ross' lighting, their enjoyment creates an escapist treat. Even sound designer Peter Carlstedt's zany house mélange of era specialty tunes induces grins. "Moon Over Buffalo" isn't remotely a great play, but my goodness is it ever fun.

Presented by and at the Open Fist Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. Jan. 20–March 10. Fri. and Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m. (866) 811-4111 or www.openfist.org.