Review: 'Fox on the Fairway' is a bit of a bogey

In Lend Me a Tenor and Moon Over Buffalo, Ken Ludwig has written two of Broadway's most popular farces. But his newest, 2010's The Fox on the Fairway at Act II Playhouse, shows he's lost more than a little off his game.

It's tournament weekend at the Quail Valley Country Club, pitting their best duffers against the rival Crouching Squirrel CC. The goofy humor in that name extends right into the tangled mess of subplots: Neurotic company gopher Justin (Will Dennis) proposes to his simpleminded waitress girlfriend, Louise (Naomi Weiss); club chairwoman Pamela (Karen Peakes) tells president Bingham (Peter Bisgaier) he will lose his job if Quail Valley doesn't win the championship; Crouching Squirrel president Dickie (Joe Guzman) poaches Bingham's best player while wagering $200,000 against the valuable real estate under the antiques shop owned by Bingham's bulldog of a wife, Muriel (Gerre Garrett).

All these plot threads intersect through crisscrossing romances, unearned and unexpected innuendo, and more awkward twists than a Chubby Checker dance marathon.

Ludwig's writing equally disappoints, opening each act with direct-address one-liners about golf by Mark Twain and others ("good walk spoiled," etc.). A few insults produce laughs, but the backstories of his characters defy even the level of suspended disbelief required for a farce. He introduces Homeric and Shakespearean themes and quips by having Louise dimwittedly declaim notes from her night-school project on Homer. A final twist wants to be worthy of Oscar Wilde but lacks the earnest attempt at playwriting to achieve it.

Only Peakes and Guzman do anything more than thrash and bluster their way through the evening. Peakes infuses her performance with little flourishes that endear, and Guzman amiably winks his way through each scene to add a bit of boyish enjoyment.

William Roudebush's direction does little to conceal the artificiality of the plot (are we really to believe a $10,000 antique vase would arrive in a box from Amazon.com?) and Dirk Durossette's set is too cramped and small to evoke the sense of comings and goings any farce requires.

The lickety-split timing of Act II's 2013 production of Lend Me a Tenor showed both Ludwig and the company at their comedic best. Fox on the Fairway needs a handicap rating to keep up.

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The Fox on the Fairway

Through Nov. 22 at Act 2 Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Ave., Ambler

Tickets: $29-$36.

Information: 215-654-0200 or www.act2.org

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