A Whole Lot of Angst Going On in ‘Wifey’

Husband and wife psychotherapists Jack (Dick DeCoit) and Rita (Mary Tower) may spend their lives helping others, but their charity definitely doesn’t begin at home. In Tom Noonan’s “Wifey,” Jack is a psychologically sadistic serial philanderer; Rita is a secret pill freak whose New Age trappings cover a lot of old-fashioned angst. When their patient Cosmo (John Nicholas) drops by unexpectedly with his sexy, abusive wife Arlie (Hali Frankel), a former exotic dancer, the stage is set for a long and nutty evening of revelations and recriminations.

As a theatergoer, one is sometimes forced to fraternize with the kind of tiresome neurotics from whom, in real life, one would ordinarily flee. Such is the case with “Wifey” at the Working Stage Company.

It’s difficult to understand how Noonan’s already badly dated comedy won a 1994 Obie for playwriting. Perhaps the New York production was so brilliantly executed it distracted from the play’s inherent limitations.

Certainly, such distractions are few and far between in Frank Megna’s misguided staging at the Working Stage Company. It’s often important to play comedy straight, but Megna takes Noonan’s relentless offbeat characters far too seriously, and the actors are so preoccupied with their psychological subtexts that they neglect the play’s evanescent comic rhythms. Ponderous Pinter pauses do not a comedy make, however dark.

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* “Wifey,” Working Stage Company, 1516 N. Gardner St., Hollywood. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Dec. 19. $15. (323) 851-2603. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.