The World According To `Kathy And Mo'

----------------------------------------------------------------- Theater review

"The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives," by Mo Gaffney and Kathy Najimy, directed by Carolyn Budd. Produced by the Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge Theatre, 107 Occidental Ave. S. Thursdays-Sundays through Dec. 23 (624-8477). -----------------------------------------------------------------

What if the act of creation was the arbitrary work of two supreme beings with beehive hairdos and a flair for interior decorating? What if men got periods? What if your sexually insecure lover overheard you on the phone with a friend, discussing your ex, "Jack the Jackhammer"?

These and other weighty questions are given their due in the Velvet Elvis Arts Lounge Theatre's production of "The Kathy and Mo Show: Parallel Lives." Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney, the pens and wits behind the off-Broadway hit, have long since moved on to movies and TV; Cynthia Lair and Eleanor O'Brien step into their shoes with aplomb for the comedy's Seattle premiere.

Director Carolyn Budd strings together the 11 sketches in a crisp stop-start fashion that, along with the spare, geometric stage construction by Greg Lundgren and Franz Goebel, focuses attention solely on the performers.

The show's first act is the stronger of the two, containing gems like "Supreme Beings Create the World," "Kris & Jeff" (dim-witted teens go on a date to a gay Denny's Restaurant), "Annette & Gina" (two girls from "Joisey" construct hypothetical real-life scenarios based on "West Side Story") and "Las Hermanas." The latter, in which two elderly Jewish matrons sign up for a women's studies course and find themselves at a women-only health-food restaurant to watch a feminist performance art piece, is by far the funniest and most tightly constructed vignette of the bunch.

Lair and O'Brien, sights to behold in rhinestone eyeglasses, lacquered hair and fur-trimmed coats, play off each other wonderfully here, trading bad jokes and malapropisms while trying to act like they belong. O'Brien is warm and funny in a rambling monologue about her lesbian (or "lesbianese," as she calls it) niece, and she and Lair are a scream as performers Holly and Molly. They deliver a withering parody of bad performance art, overflowing with self-indulgent cliches and drippy "womyn-centric" sentiment.

Despite some uneven material - "God" and "Period Piece," for example, meander a little as they rehash standard female comedy fare - "The Kathy and Mo Show" is an entertaining two hours. The laugh-o-meter never falls below a mildly amused chuckle, and often shoots up into belly-laugh range.