THEATER REVIEW:Comic romp in early Hollywood

Hollywood is renowned for its screwball comedies of the 1930s and ‘40s, many of them starring Cary Grant (“Bringing Up Baby,” “His Girl Friday,” even “Arsenic and Old Lace”), but the subject that proved most ripe for satirical slapstick is Tinseltown itself (see “Singin’ in the Rain”).

In “The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune,” a new farcical romp by Robert Schenkkan now on stage at UC Irvine, the clock is turned back to 1929, when “talkies” became the rage. The comedy is as screwball as it gets with various denizens of the film capital pushing their respective agendas on a collision course.

The Roaring ‘20s were just about roared out, and the Great Depression was just around the corner, as “Miss Hollywood” — directed with wild abandon by Benjamin Pohlmeier — unfolds. The characters are as diverse and hilarious a lot as has ever emerged from Central Casting.

The play centers on an enterprising agent, in hock to the mob over some horse-racing debts, seeking to extricate himself and make a killing in real estate before his creditor’s goons make a literal killing of him. His primary client, a classically trained British actor stuck in horrendous horse operas, is pining to play King Lear, and his lady love, a struggling actress, finds herself all decked out as a lobster.

Meanwhile, some shady land grabbers are betting their financial lives on the designated route of a Los Angeles street extension, while others attempt to rig the Miss Hollywood beauty contest in favor of their particular flame. In the background is a Western Union messenger named Marion Morrison who has a hankering to make it in Hollywood (and will, once he changes his name to John Wayne).

Sean Spann is a whirling dervish of a promoter in UCI’s production, a juggler with several opportunity balls in the air. His bit player sweetheart with genuine talent underneath the shell and claws is delightfully enacted by Katie Duthler.

Jason Vande Brake, who looks all of seven feet tall next to the diminutive Spann, is a powerhouse of an actor with a weakness for both booze and boys. The local crime boss, delivered with a grating Spanish accent, is strongly rendered by Garrett Mendez.

A dynamic Taylor Katai plays Mendez’s sultry sweetheart, Lola Gotalotta, while Elizabeth Mugavero is a pushy pageant contestant and Sean Jackson gets all folksy as her crooked lawman beau who’s tangled up with fast-talking real estate grifters Michael Doonan and Joe Johnson. Tait Gabrielsen is the stalwart John Wayne character, billed simply as Young Man.

Beyond the principal conflicts, the UCI production has a number of one-shot laugh catchers, such as Shawn Jones’ mustachioed Old West baddie, Michael Lane and Samuel Thornton as Runyanesque mob enforcers and Skye Bronfenbrenner as a pageant contestant whose poodle piddles on stage. Jamie Elvey has a delicious early scene as a tough-talking actress.

Playwright Schenkkan has cribbed from a few sources in the creation of his 1929 Hollywood, tripping up once when a character refers to “King Kong” — which wouldn’t hit the silver screen until 1933. And debt-collecting hoods decked out as pageant participants is a bit blatantly borrowed from “Kiss Me, Kate” (which UCI staged last year).

There’s a lot to laugh at in “The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune,” and UCI’s sizable cast offers numerous segments of hilarity, from chuckles to chortles. Costume designer Martha Gretsch can take credit for much of the humor, particularly Duthler’s elaborate lobster outfit, while Robin Watson’s enterprising trio of settings is equally colorful.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “The Marriage of Miss Hollywood and King Neptune”

WHERE: UC Irvine Studio Theater

WHEN: Closing performances tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m.

COST: $8 to $10

CALL: (949) 8242787