Anchorage Daily News

If you snicker at "Monty Python," you'll howl at "Good Evening." Once a Year Theater Company's production of the Tony-winning comedy revue has the bounce, silliness, randy puns and wacky, wicked wit associated with the British music hall tradition. It also has longtime local funnyman John Fraser in the script he was born to perform.

The two-hour show consists of a chain of skits in the style of "Saturday Night Live." Several of the bits, written by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, were originally done on television in mock interview format, including the classic "Frog and Peach."

For the Anchorage rendition, Fraser plays England's most hapless restaurateur, the blustery owner of an establishment whose name also encompasses its horrid menu. ("My wife does all the cooking. And all the eating. She's not a well woman.") Frog and Peach is located in the remote, inaccessible "heart of the Yorkshire bogs" because the man thought people were craving a restaurant that posed no parking problems. Hey! This could be Anchorage!

Fraser's foil in this and several other vignettes is a splendidly mugging David Haynes. He also joins Fraser and Tom Getty -- the three dressed as bewigged barristers -- in videotaped musical interludes, consisting of ribald rounds, projected on the Wild Berry Theater's screen to cover quick costume changes.

In one change, Rob Lecrone, the third man onstage, has to rapidly switch from a public school fop to a coal miner who is hoping to write his memoir in the manner of Marcel Proust. Then he plays a one-legged actor auditioning for the role of Tarzan. Then a psychotic cabdriver who plays Shostakovich's grim Fifth Symphony for his riders and opts not to kill them if he thinks they're not famous enough to get him on the front page of the newspaper.

The writing is nonsensical joy. A highlight is another faux interview in which Lecrone plays Matthew, ace reporter for the Bethlehem Star working on an "in-depth profile of Jesus" and questioning an old shepherd, played by Fraser. Was the angel well-spoken? "Oh yes, he was very effluent." And the wise men? "Three bloody idiots if I ever seen 'em. Called themselves 'Maggy'!" But the precocious babe was polite and genteel, straightening out his mis-swaddled swaddling clothes and saying, "Thank you for the gifts. Have a safe trip back. And Merry Christmas!"

Directed by Ann Reddig, this smoothly delivered tomfoolery is a kind of springtime Christmas present for Alaskans needing to recharge their spirits with a good laugh. The humor tends toward the adult side, though the insinuations are wordplay, often sexual but never graphic and only occasionally scatological; the manger animals, for instance, "have no sense of occasion," says Fraser as he mimes their digestive indiscretions.

The British accents in which all roles are delivered work well enough for comedy, but people with hearing difficulties should be advised that this humor is verbal, not visual.

Still, for the price of a couple of beers, there's probably no better entertainment in Anchorage this month.

Speaking of beers, they may be purchased at the concession stand and brought into the theater, as can wine. If you want something stronger, hit the full bar at the Sourdough Mining Co. across the street before showtime.

Find Mike Dunham online at adn.com/contact/mdunham or call 257-4332.

GOOD EVENING will be presented by Once a Year Theater Company at 7:30 p.m. today and May 23-24 at Wild Berry Theater, 5225 Juneau St. Tickets are $10-$15 at CenterTix or 263-2787.

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