THEATER:Comedy grand in ‘Verdi’

Bernard Farrell and the Laguna Playhouse have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship for several years, but the local theater really caught the brass ring when it commissioned the Irish playwright to write a new comedy which would receive its world premiere in Laguna.

The result is “The Verdi Girls,” and a funnier piece of theater would be difficult to imagine, original or otherwise.

Not since “Many Happy Returns” (another Farrell comedy) last season have the walls of the playhouse reverberated with so much sustained laughter.

Comedy is born of recognizable people caught in outrageous situations, and they don’t come much more outrageous than the escapades placed on stage by the playhouse’s artistic director, Andrew Barnicle, who has been at the helm of the other four Farrell comedies staged in Laguna and who particularly excels in mining laughs from this mother lode of comedy and farce.

Think Neil Simon induced chortles with his father of the bride caught on a window ledge in the rain in “Plaza Suite”? Wait until you see what Farrell does with basically the same circumstances in “The Verdi Girls.”

Familiar characters writ large are this playwright’s stock in trade, along with a healthy dose of unexpected humor every now and again.

The title characters are a group of opera buffs who particularly revere Italy’s Giuseppe Verdi, — not only “girls,” but some male classical afficionados as well.

They convene once a year for a “Verdi weekend” in Milan, during which a “Verdi quiz” is given and the loving cup prize is treasured beyond rubies.

First on the scene are Linda (Elyse Mirto), a recently widowed regular attending for the first time as a single, and Breda (Katharine McEwan), an Irish lady who’s rooming with Linda after meeting her via e-mail and discovering their shared passion (this may or may not be an inside joke).

Down the hall are the play’s most interesting pair, blonde, perky Patricia (Traci L. Crouch) and her high-voltage husband Pete (Bo Foxworth), a type AA competitor blessed with the most flammable characterization. When comedic push comes to shove, this guy carries a battering ram.

Then there’s Oliver (Gregory North), organizer of the fun and games and possessor of a rather kinky foot fetish, as well as an exasperating, wheelchair-bound mother (Patricia Cullen), who gleefully makes life miserable not only for Oliver, but for all concerned, especially the already tightly-wound Pete.

Riding herd on the attendant craziness is bellhop-security guy Mario (Vasili Bogazianos), whose knack for showing up at the wrong time is somewhat of an art.

Mix these ingredients thoroughly and it’s laugh-out-loud funny virtually from start to finish.

All seven performers excel, but it’s Foxworth’s ultra-competitive alpha male character who walks off with the blue ribbon, dodging one near-death experience after another as he insists on walking along an ironing board from one hotel room balcony to another.

Crouch’s chirpy, supportive wife is another memorable rendition. Mirto and McEwan seem to be aboard primarily to direct traffic until late in the second act, when Farrell uncorks a whopper of a plot sending their tempers skyward.

North and Bogazianos flex solid comic musculature in their scenes, but Cullen tends to walk off with hers without even putting in an appearance until the second act.

Dwight Richard Odle’s Milan luxury suite is a dazzling backdrop, beautifully abetted by Julie Keen’s modern costumes and Paulie Jenkins’ sharp lighting effects.

Sound, engineered by David Edwards, plays a crucial role in this classical-themed comedy.

You won’t laugh as hard, or as long, at a play all year than at “The Verdi Girls,” and you’ll be among the first in the world to do so. Bravo to all involved.