‘Naked Girl’ is worth a look

TOM TITUS

Richard Greenberg is to South Coast Repertory what Neil Simon is to

the commercial Broadway theater, a prolific wordsmith who thankfully

chooses the Costa Mesa-based group as the birthplace for many of his

concepts.

Over the years, the first nine plays he’s birthed locally have run

the gamut from bittersweet comedy (“Everett Beekin”) to anxiety and

frustration (“Three Days of Rain,” “Brooklyn Boy”), to modern

historical drama (“Night and her Stars”) and fantasy (“The Violet

Hour”). His latest world premiere at South Coast Repertory, however,

is pure out-and-out comedy with a dab of social satire -- Greenberg

at his most biting and hilarious.

There are, it must be pointed out, no naked girls in “A Naked Girl

on the Appian Way” -- in fact, the reference is employed merely in

passing. It does, however, set the tone for the play, which takes the

form initially of a wisecrack- ing comedy in its first act before

opening a Pandora’s box of wacky complications in the second in

director Mark Rucker’s supremely enjoyable production.

Jeffrey and Bess (South Coast Repertory’s first team of John de

Lancie and Linda Gehringer) form an attractive, highly literate

middle-aged couple who’ve obviously done quite nicely -- Tony

Fanning’s panoramic interior setting is immaculately presented and

meticulously detailed. They’re awaiting the arrival of two of their

three adopted children from a European vacation, though quite

unprepared for the news they’re bringing.

It seems the pair -- a lanky WASPish airhead (Terrence Riordan)

and a perky Dominican scholar (Dawn-Lynn Gardner) -- have carried the

concept of brotherly (and sisterly) love to its most unsettling

extreme. This doesn’t set well with the supposedly freethinking

parents, but it really fries the third sibling (James Yaegashi), who

nurses the world’s biggest inferiority complex.

Toss in a trash-talking elderly neighbor (Ann Guilbert) and her

frustrated daughter-in-law (Mary Joy), and the ingredients for high

comedy are present in abundance. Greenberg’s play tickles the

imagination as much as it does the funny bone, primarily since we’re

never aware from which direction the next belly laugh will come.

De Lancie -- who has an enormous “Q factor” among Trekkies --

displays a stellar sense of comic timing and egregious reaction in

his fifth visit to the South Coast Repertory stage. As a writer

engrossed in a project involving business and the arts, whose

confidence level is waning, de Lancie serves up Greenberg’s

intellectual zingers with delicious zest and pinpoint accuracy.

Gehringer -- a superb actress who’s graced the South Coast

Repertory stage on eight previous occasions -- beautifully enacts the

cool, collected author of cookbooks whose equilibrium comes

hilariously undone by the familial bombshell.

She’s particularly adept at handling a little secretive gem from

her own past later in the play.

Riordan’s towering gawkiness and Gardner’s more down-to-earth

quality are beautifully contrasted in this odd attraction of

opposites. Yaegashi’s arrival in the second act puts a completely

different spin on the situation as he pouts his way through a

performance as a ballistic, inconsequential character.

The veteran Guilbert, in her 50th year as an actress (seasoned TV

audiences might remember her middle name, “Morgan”), manages to

commit grand larceny with any scene she’s involved in.

Her mind may be slipping, but her wit remains intact -- and her

snappy comebacks are priceless. Joy’s thankless role as, in

Guilbert’s words, “that (rhymes with witch) Elaine,” gains momentum

as the play reaches its climax.

“A Naked Girl on the Appian Way” is pure escapist humor on one

hand and biting social commentary on the other, merged with

Greenberg’s steady hand.

It’s laugh-out-loud funny in any context.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews

appear Fridays.