Uneven Comedy

The Milwaukee Rep's Stackner Cabaret opens a rare non-musical show this month with Greater Tuna: a comic exploration of small-town southern life. The Rep's production stars resident actors Lee Ernst and Gerard Neugent in a multitude of different roles. The play follows the residents of the third smallest town in Texas through a series of sketches, a few of which aspire to more than just laughter.

The show opens with Ernst and Neugent playing a pair of radio personalities delivering small-town news. Their charm works best together as the radio duo. The rest of the show seems to largely consist of the two actors switching between characters in quick change to deliver bits of monologue. Ernst has a few emotionally affecting moments, most notably as the representative of the local humane society. Neugent delivers impressive comic energy throughout the show, most notably towards the end in the all-too-brief role of the Elvis-like Reverend Sparks.

While it's difficult to argue against the merits of a script that has been as successful as Greater Tunahas over the course of the better part of the past three decades, the popular show comes across in this latest production with far less appeal than one might expect. There are moments of comic brilliance here, but there's a lot of comedic dead weight separating them. Of particular note here is an extended scene with Neugent in drag interacting with a series of imaginary, pantomimed dogs. It could be that this simply isn't the kind of comedy Neugent is terribly effective with, but it's difficult to imagine any actor breathing much life into such a lame bit. The little twinges of drama that are thrown in are brilliantly executed, but seem out of place in such an uneven comedy.

Greater Tuna runs through Dec. 28 at the Rep's Stackner Cabaret.