Theater Beat : Sometimes, a Good Idea Just Doesn’t Take Flight

Sinatra is dead. The HBO movie on the Rat Pack is up for Emmys. What could be more timely than a comedy about four entertainers trying to cash in on the public’s renewed interest in the idols they tried to emulate?

Mark Nutter’s musical “Hit It, Don!” at the Century City Playhouse is a good idea that doesn’t quite get off the ground. Poor character development, indecisive style and a dependence on purposely bad lyrics that aren’t bad enough to be good weigh down this show.

Meeting at a seedy topless bar, the Classy Poodle, the ersatz Italian crooner Johnny (John Rubano) and his music director, Don (Nutter), reunite with the old act’s comedian, Lenny (Joe Liss, doing a great Jerry Lewis imitation). They are also joined by Don’s ex-wife, Katie (Jeanette Schwaba-Vigne), who once played the bimbo to add sex appeal but has found herself by trying to identify with the grunge movement.

Nutter shows us plenty of antics, but to little advantage. The brief slapstick sequence backstage is funnier than anything onstage but jarringly out of sync with the rest of the play. The onstage banter isn’t particularly clever, and the performers don’t doff their stage personas in their dressing room.

Marc Grapey’s direction does little to compensate for the weakness of Nutter’s script.

* “Hit It, Don!,” Century City Playhouse, 10508 W. Pico Blvd., Century City. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Ends Oct. 2. $22.50-$27.50. (323) 655-TKTS. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.