Did you ever dream up a get-rich-quick app idea? Three wannabes do just that in “Pet Lingerie,” an original musical comedy playing in Ross.
Presented by the Ross Valley Players, the two-act show, which takes clever potshots at technology in general and crowdfunding in particular, can be summed up in a single word: Silly.
Did writers Fred Raker and Bruce Tallerman (who met in Hollywood, writing for TV) expect that every one of their rapid-fire verbal gags would draw laughs? It turns out that the 105-minute play develops a rhythm something like this: Funny gag, laugh-out-loud gag, a bomb, funny gag, lol gag, a bomb, ad infinitum.
However, audience laughter and sporadic applause nonetheless pummel the rafters of the Barn Theatre at the Marin Art and Garden Center, where the show runs through April 6.
“Pet Lingerie” takes place in the Airport Suites Hotel in Terre Haute, Indiana, where muffler peddler Ruben Mondello (Landers Markwick), ex-plumber Frank Pincus (Robin Schild) and yoga devotee Frances Ulrich (Vicki Victoria) try to learn from marketing maven Gary Panko (Laszlo Horner) how to kickstart their products.
His three-day workshops may be too intense for some participants, but there are no refunds — “mental breakdowns are no exceptions.”
Their brainstorms are, to say the least, innovative: how to tell whether orgasms are fake; how to smother a toilet flush with recorded operatic arias; and how to get “sweet revenge” via “FU” cookies and bird-flipping mitts.
Panko’s own apps are no less imaginative: They include a flak jacket that dispenses coffee through a tube and, of course, pet garments.
Supporting characters add to the madcap mirth. Silvana Concino (Natalie Buck-Bauer) portrays a sexy but angry Italian flight attendant jettisoned by Panko, her lover; Susan Night (Annejelika “AJ” Ong Cortez) plays a tribute band singer craving Broadway lights. And Rabbi Moshe Ben-Hogan (Dan Schwager) is a playwright who’s long been blocked.
Also: There’s Ron Talbot, who guides a pope puppet that doubles as a giggle-getter and center of a morality play within the play.
A sample of the show’s humor: “We had sex before there was sexting” and “I always thought we’d tie the knot, but you turned out to be a bot.” And, from old chestnuts: “Why’d the Florida chicken cross the road? … to avoid becoming an early bird dinner.”
As for the music, no one’s likely to leave the theater whistling the tunes composed by Tallerman. Still, Buck-Bauer as Silvana, Markwick as Ruben, and Schild as Frank all showcase impressive singing voices.
Gary Stanford Jr., responsible for the show’s cutesy low-tech choreography, also directs “Pet Lingerie,” which has a delightfully droll twist at its tail. And Valera Coble’s winning costumes contrast bright and colorful garb with an orthodox rabbi’s all-black attire.
“Pet Lingerie,” a Ross Valley Players New Works production, was selected from more than 70 other previously unproduced plays by living Bay Area writers. While RVP New Works have smaller budgets, shorter runs and less elaborate sets than some of the company’s other shows, they often take more creative chances.
Here, for example, are offbeat but endearing concepts as a retired tradesman who still carries a plunger with him, an idea man who hides under the covers wearing a virtual-reality headset, and a non-traditional Partridge Family Tribute Band.
And even if RVP New Works are imperfect, they deserve support. It’s exciting and brave to stage original plays with topical themes.
Ross Valley Players “Pet Lingerie” runs through April 6 in the Barn Theatre at the Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. Tickets are $20-$35 at rossvalleyplayers.com.
Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be reached at woodyweingarten.com and vitalitypress.com.
