Some Off Broadway shows make you laugh so much your face aches when you leave.
This show doesn't do that.It's more of a smiler and a chuckler and a lot of shaking your head because you can't believe the corn you're hearing.
For first-time playwright Cody Carlson, it's also a winner.
It's fresh, clever and well-done.
Eric Jensen gets the chance to create yet another crazy character as he spoofs Groucho Marx right down to the bow-legged stance and the low-key running wisecracks as he plays Fink, the owner of a restaurant that has yet to open after five years of Fink's management.
Several new characters are introduced to the fun-loving Off Broadway audience as well as bringing back some favorites in Russell Peacock and Alexis Owen.
Peacock - returning with hair for this show - plays the world-famous Italian chef Bagdolio, and Owen takes on the persona of Harpo Marx in the character of Less, complete with a consistently silly grin, a coat with a lot of pockets and a dopey outlook. Owen's is the face that probably aches from smiling after this one.
She's got a great set of teeth.
Peacock probably just has some basic body aches after he's dropped and dragged off stage.
Others in the cast may feel the same since there's an inordinate amount of carrying of bodies draped in pink tablecloths in one scene or another.
This is a fun yet simple show with a variety of subplots going just to keep things interesting.
Fink is accused of robbing the restaurant by a bigger con man than Fink ever considered being. Meanwhile, he's trying to convince his investor, Mrs. Vanderhelper, to loan him just enough more to avoid closing the Imperial restaurant.
He thinks he can do that if he can appear to be bringing chef Bagdolio on to work in the kitch-en.
Bagdolio is trying to woo the daughter of the restaurant investor although he already has a wife very intent on seeing he doesn't dally.
Vanderhelper, the moneybags in this script, is just trying to sort out who to trust with her cash.
In the meantime, there's a fake world-famous chef and his sidekick (Less, also known as Harpo), running around complicating things.
Fink gets into some tangled webs that would have a less optimistic joker worried. The saving grace is that he tangles with Peacock a couple of times in a classic Jensen-Peacock duel that's nothing but entertaining.
As usual, a lot of the gags are groaners and some as tired as they come, but the talent and delivery involved make them work.
Costuming, done by Laura Bedore, is really superb. The set is nothing remarkable but doesn't get in the way of the story, either.
Here's a new comedy that hasn't already been done. You don't know where it's going to go or how it has to end. That, in itself, is wonderfully refreshing.
It gives the Off Broadway actors a chance to go in some new directions, and it flies along.
There's not much nodding off here because if you do, you'll miss something funny.
Only one caution: Some of the lines get lost due to the Italian accents in some scenes and the low-talking that goes with most of the scenes.
Maybe that could be worked on.
Otherwise, this is one to see and enjoy.