The ‘City’ through warped lenses

Mordant, up-to-the-minute wit fuels “City of the Future,” scampering about the Groundlings Theater. This latest showcase from Los Angeles’ celebrated comedy troupe is consistently twisted and often uproarious.

One factor is director Patrick Bristow’s swift deployment of his gonzo ensemble.

These writer-performers (with alternates) scramble past the odd flat-footed bit or ad lib with patented ease.

Their politically incorrect energy carries the evening, with an emphasis on grotesquerie.

Like Jeremy Rowley’s “The Pharmacy,” pitting Rowley’s rash-ridden imp against Jim Rash’s imploding service provider. Or “The Kays,” in which Melissa McCarthy and Jill Matson play separated previously conjoined twins in a manner conjoining Julia Sweeney’s character Pat with all four Teletubbies.

Other peaks include Rash’s “Lost” (time-warped legal eagles), Mitch Silpa and Jim Cashman’s “Poof!” (gay adolescents, paranoid parents), Rash and Nat Faxon’s “The Cadet” (inane TV movies) and Ted Michaels’ “A Smarmy Amishman” (the title says it all).

The first half closes on the caustic “Mr. Munroe Explains It All,” with Ben Falcone razing the Bush administration in rap, assisted by Matson, Faxon, Cashman, Daniele Gaither and Wendi McLendon-Covey. The evening’s wicked finale, Steven Pierce’s “Sacramento,” decimates the Oscar-winning “Chicago,” Gov. Gray Davis and Hillary Clinton’s thighs.

The trademark improvs are sometimes too obviously pointed, but the Pictionary-slanted religious riff yields dizzy results. The ever-rocking band of Wille Etra, Greg Kanaga and Larry Treadwell provides toe-tapping continuity between segments.

-- David C. Nichols

“City of the Future,” Groundlings Theater, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A. Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. Runs indefinitely. $18.50. Mature audiences. (323) 934-9700. Running time: 2 hours.