STAGE REVIEW : Help! It’s ‘Fallin’, ‘ and Can’t Get Up : The Way Off Broadway revue is way off. With the exception of a few highlights, the rigors of improvisation are beyond the present skills of the ensemble.

SANTA ANA — “Loose” would be a friendly way to describe Way Off Broadway’s latest comedy night, “Catch Us Now, We’re Fallin’.” If there’s a positive thematic thrust to that title, it was mislaid in this seat-of-the-pants scramble of a revue offering some modest satire spiced with music.

Punctuated by a running byplay between a Jewish American Princess studio exec (January Gordon) and her put-upon lackey (Kevin Hayden), the evening’s 18 skits include seven “new fall pilots” that aren’t nearly as inventive as their titles promise. The strongest contender, “PMS Girl,” opens the first act. With tampons dangling from her cape strings, a rambunctious Valerie J. Ludwig plays a super-heroine fueled by rampant hormones who dispenses justice and then some to the hapless bad guy.

The second act serves up a three-part routine about the fate of a family of pumpkins. Although the first installment was almost incomprehensible, the joke eventually developed into something that was marginally funny but at least legitimately off-the-wall.

The funniest bit of the whole show is a short pantomime entitled “Election ‘92,” which features a voting booth and a tumbleweed. Other highlights are Dani Ballew’s Lucille Ball impression (which is far superior to the script it is propping up,) and one of Douglas Sinclair’s wonderfully maniacal signature turns as an overenthusiastic, over-the-hill jock who never says die.

Careful listening and laid-back expectations will yield the auditor some good tidbits throughout the evening, but there’s very little of “Catch Us Now, We’re Fallin’ ” that is fully developed. Producer-director Tony Reverditto, who, along with January Gordon, is credited with the show’s conception, aims wide and consequently shoots at nothing in particular. Although Way Off Broadway’s productions of regular, scripted material often have a wild, improvisational feel to them, the rigors of creating and performing real improvisational material are beyond the present skills of the ensemble.

Nevertheless, in a format where the flubs are often the funniest things, musicians Connie Misen, Deblyn Padella, Tom Plaisance and Steve Schmidt (who provide two entr’acte songs and the mood music for the production) got a good laugh as they tried to exit a number improvised from an audience suggestion.

And yes, the audience is asked to participate verbally, but last Friday night’s house, although appreciative in other regards, were pikers when it came to piping up. The grand finale--the Miss Way Off Broadway Pageant, featuring the boys decked out as Miss Garbage Grove, Miss Anaslime, etc.--did get the applause meters rocking, but the obligatory drag sequence is getting to be, well, a drag. How about some really off-the-wall ideas?

“Catch Us Now, We’re Fallin’ ”

A Way Off Broadway presentation. Conceived by Tony Reverditto and January Gordon. Produced and directed by Tony Reverditto. With January Gordon, Laura Guerrero, Kevin Hayden, Godfrey Huguley, Karen Kawolics, Helen Lasater, Valerie J. Ludwig, Steve McCammon, Tony Reverditto, Douglas Sinclair, Kevin Visbal, Zee, Dani Ballew, Janet Klein, Renee Scarpin, Jane Sharp and Ricci Thomas. Musicians: Tom Plaisance, Steve Schmidt, Connie Misen and Deblyn Padella. At the Way Off Broadway Playhouse, 1058 E. 1st St., Santa Ana. Performances Friday and Saturday at 9 p.m. $10. (714) 547-8997.