‘White Way’ Spoofs Broadway Bombs

Aspiring songwriters, take heart. Your musical can’t possibly be as bad as those parodied in “The Grave White Way,� now at Cinegrill in the Radisson Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Or at least not as deliberately bad.

Composer-librettist Joe Patrick Ward has devised this agreeable, if mostly one-note, cabaret spoof of Broadway bombs. Unlike “Forbidden Broadway,� which savages real shows, Ward’s revue lambastes imaginary ones, notable only for their complete lack of taste.

In “Wichita!,� for instance, Kansas pioneers sing of their eager attendance at cockfights (where “it’s cock-a-doodle-do or die�). The story of deaf-mute Helen Keller gets an unlikely musical treatment in “Oh, Helen!� And maybe it was the chorus that kept audiences away from the Lizzie Borden tuner “40 Whacks 40�: “Everyone has an ax to grind/No family is perfect so never we mind.�

Ward’s pungent couplets keep you smiling even though the songs and setups tend to blend together after a while. The five cast members--Kirsten Benton, Kay Cole, Craig A. Curtis, Elizabeth Anne Smith and Robert Yacko--have strong, clear voices. Under Larry Randolph’s direction and Ward’s piano accompaniment, they also have a lot of fun with the material.

If only real duds could fizzle so entertainingly.

* “The Grave White Way,� Cinegrill, Radisson Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Aug. 14-15, 22, 29, 8 p.m. Ends Aug. 29. $15. (213) 466-7000. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.