‘Faster Pussycat’ a Comic Romp

LOS ANGELES —  “Faster Pussycat, Sunday, Sunday” may feature the Groundlings’ second-string company, but make no mistake: Comedically speaking, these Groundling kittens have whips, and their occasional descents beneath the valley of good taste seldom detract from their comic endowments.

By the time comedy-improv performers make the cut to the Groundlings’ Sunday show, they are typically well-groomed professionals--and this company is no exception. For many in the cast, this is the last step between a long apprenticeship of training and a slot in the regular company.

Despite the high stakes, the performers seem generously supportive of one another on stage, particularly in the well-honed improv portions of the show, sportsmanlike events ably coordinated by director Mindy Sterling.

This particular Groundling outing does not offer the break-out comedic characters that spell an automatic television contract. (Julia Sweeney’s androgynous Pat was first seen in a Groundling Sunday show.) The laughs in “Pussycat” derive more from situation than from outre personalities.

One notable exception is the bald, rubber-faced Ken Polk, an outre personality in and of himself, whose rendering of an illiterate turnip farmer is an instant classic. A wisely subtle performer, Polk personifies what Bert Lahr might have been like if he’d studied the Method.

Amy Von Freymann’s “Birds and Bees,” which cuts back and forth between a prim female teacher and a jovial boys’ athletics coach, is a blunt-edged satire that hilariously lampoons the gender gap. While she terrifies her girl listeners with the grosser aspects of sex--(“Menstruation is Latin for ‘God Hates Women’ ”)--he extols its splendors to his cheering all-boy audience.

And for inspired camp, we are privy to the recently rediscovered archival outtakes of a very nasty Jimmy Durante (Steve Pierce) and very drunken Judy Garland (Robin Berry) as they slog through endless voice-over retakes of “The Christmas Mouse,” a “lost” animated Christmas special that puts the cruel in Yule.

BE THERE

“Faster Pussycat, Sunday, Sunday,” Groundling Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Sundays only, 7:30 p.m. Indefinite. $12. (213) 934-9700. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.