THEATER REVIEW:

If you’re bummed because the TV drama “ER” hasn’t been shown the past few Thursday evenings, you could check into it next weekend in Huntington Beach.

A live version of “ER: Emergency Room” will be presented at the Huntington Beach Art Center on March 22 to 25, following its opening weekend in Irvine, under the auspices of the Newport Beach Repertory Theater. Just don’t look for Abby, Luca, Neela or any of the other characters from the TV show.

This “ER” is a project hatched by the Organic Theater Company of Chicago (where the TV version also is fictionally headquartered). This is the same group of artists that brought you the hit baseball comedy “Bleacher Bums” a few decades ago.

Directed by Robert Michael Conrad, who helmed the group’s impressive production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” last season, “ER” is less a play than a glimpse of one night’s shift in the emergency room of a busy hospital, presented in slice-of-life style much like Lanford Wilson’s “The Hot L Baltimore.”

This gives a large cast of 18 performers the chance to make an impression without having to carry an entire story — some, in fact, play two or three characters. It’s done in realistic fashion, often with one scene’s dialogue overlapping another’s.

The comic-drama’s central characters are the two doctors on call — the efficient John Sherman (Gene Godwin) and the overworked Howard Sheinfeld (John Briginshaw). Backing them up is a no-nonsense head nurse, Joan Thor (Sandra Mahana), who’s a more interesting character and should be given more to do.

Predictably, it’s the patients who steal the scenes with their various ailments, often visiting the ER for the wrong reason — a teenage girl suffering from constipation (Mackenzie Gaddis) turns out to be in labor, while a fellow with ear problems (Ayal Willner, a doctor in real life) has a light bulb inserted somewhat further south.

The most convincing performance comes from Russ Reck as a Type A businessman who can’t slow down, even to be treated for a heart attack. Nina Dawson is impressive as his dutiful wife, while Kristine Lynne Adams lurks in the shadows as the fellow’s mistress.

Adams also is seen in a splendid interpretation of the impatient mother of the “constipated” young girl. Bruce Curry is convincing as a veteran cop with a surly young rapper (Zach Tafoya) in tow, while Kyle Dones is quite effective as a falling-down drunk.

“ER” is no “Bleacher Bums” — those characters were far more developed — but it’s entertaining, even just skimming the surface of hospital procedure. And it’s bound to strike a few responsive chords with those who have visited one of the facilities.

The Newport Beach Repertory Theater will bring “ER” to the Huntington Beach Art Center for four days and five performances, March 22 to 25.

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot. His reviews appear Fridays.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “ER: Emergency Room”

WHO: Newport Beach Repertory Theater

WHERE: Huntington Beach Art Center, 538 Main St., Huntington Beach

WHEN: March 22 and 23 at 8 p.m., March 24 at 1 and 8, March 25 at 1 p.m.

COST: $15 to $17

INFO: (949) 633-1580