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‘Cool Cops!’ Updates Burlesque for the ‘90s

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Enter “Cool Cops!” at your own risk. You just might get thrown up against a wall and frisked before you’re escorted to your seat.

“Cool Cops!,” at the Actors’ Gang’s refurbished small theater, outrageously parodies police corruption. A cross between “NYPD Blue” and “Naked Gun,” this hard-boiled yet hilarious comedy is testosterone-fueled and broad in the extreme. Call this new wave burlesque, retrograde naughtiness couched in a lacerating, almost surreal ‘90s sensibility.

On the day of his retirement, jaded 17-year police veteran Woody Durbin (Lee Arenberg), author of a tell-all book about the department, is mowed down by an unseen assailant. It looks like an inside job; in fact, all Durbin’s coked-out associates on the force, from the Chief (Ned Bellamy) to sexpot vice officer Baby Doll McCallister (Cynthia Ettinger) are suspects.

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Directed by Jason Reed and scripted by Reed and Kirk Ward, the show was work-shopped over the course of several months by the cast. Live drum music by Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez of Oingo Boingo sets the pace for this percussive, high-energy play, which is conducted at the decibel level of a rock concert. A prolonged comedy sketch, “Cool Cops!” cannot ultimately sustain its manic pace--but by then, we are limp with laughter and ready for a rest.

* “Cool Cops!,” Actors’ Gang/El Centro Theater, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays, 10:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Indefinitely. $10. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

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