‘Tagteam Lovefest’ a Raucous Rocket Ride

A theme park spaceship ride on Viagra, “Tagteam Lovefest 2000� at Actors’ Gang marries high concept to low comedy as a malfunctioning rocket hurls an unruly band of oversexed explorers through various historical eras.

Writer-director Jason Reed puts campy excess into hyperdrive as the fearless (and brainless) Commander Carl Conrad (Ned Bellamy) and his crew spread mayhem and unchecked libidos from prehistoric times to 2006.

Stylistically, the piece is a gem, transforming the entire venue into a participatory sci-fi environment. Before “blastoff,� bug-eyed aliens mingle with the audience congregating in the lobby. Inside, set designer Jason Adams shoots for the moon with an elaborate two-tiered spacecraft looming behind a futuristic roller-derby rink.

Salvatore Salamone’s inventive costumes amaze at every turn--from the grotesque muscular chest prosthetics and bulging mortar shell stuffed down the pants of the ship’s studly second banana (Brent Hinkley) to the “Barbarella�-esque outfits on the nympho-navigator (Belinda Waymouth) and shapely space hostesses (Lauren Katz, Gillian Marloth and Teigh McDonough). Rounding out the crew are a truly-blue alien engineer (Erskine Wheeler) and a roller-skating doctor (Gary Kelley) whose skills come in handy for both a vicious 1958 roller-derby match and a 1979 roller-boogie disco contest.

At opposite ends of history, we find the crew fighting lumbering Neanderthals for comely cavewomen and adding to the fireworks on a futuristic version of “Jerry Springer� in which the host (Brian Leckner) pummels his guests. Ensemble members Ken Elliott, Ken Palmer, Hollace Starr, Karim Ek, Reza Safai, Molly Bremmer, Lolly Ward, Nicole Robinson and Brendan Smith don multiple roles.

Witty dialogue isn’t Reed’s strong suit--he’s more effective at finding endlessly ingenious pretexts to entwine his characters in raunchy poses, and at building each historical sequence into an eruption of lethal combat (kudos to choreographers Jenine Smith and Ken Roht). Amid the obvious salacious satire, Reed’s more sardonic underlying message concerns our timeless propensity for violence--a powerful but narrow point that wears thin with repetition. Though plenty of raucous exuberance sustains momentum, sharper writing would better complement the stunning visuals and boundless energy expended by a hard-working cast.

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* “Tagteam Lovefest 2000,� Actors’ Gang, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Ends Aug. 28. $15. (323) 655-TKTS. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.