‘Billy’ Has Plenty of Kitschy Charm : ‘Attraction’ Pulls Apart Family Battles

Referring to the 1930s in his new revue, Billy Barnes sings: “Life was cheerier, Wallace Beery-er.”

The first assertion may be open to debate. But there’s no arguing the kitschy charm of “Billy Barnes’ Hollywood!” at the Cinegrill.

Songwriter and pianist Barnes and fellow singers Eileen Barnett and Michael G. Hawkins take a gleeful trip through old (and a few recent) movie songs.

The choices will strike some as maddeningly selective. Barnes and company knock off winking renditions of “Singin’ in the Rain” and “As Time Goes By,” pieces from Barnes’ own stage musical “Movie Star” and an encore of Disney songs. Yet a film-themed revue that slights Harry Warren, Jimmy Van Heusen and Michel Legrand (among others) deserves a rap on the knuckles.

As directed by Lara Teeter and Clifford Bell, “Billy Barnes’ Hollywood!” compensates by being nearly as irrepressible as its gnomish, tuxedo-wearing namesake. The singing trio has perfected the dubious art of applause-milking stage patter, with Hawkins saluting Barnes: “We are truly in the presence of a master, are we not?”

Such old-fashioned moments arise frequently in this nostalgic show--if not the best revue in town then certainly the Beery-est.

* “Billy Barnes’ Hollywood!,” Radisson Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Mondays, 8 p.m. Ends Jan. 29. $15 cover, with $10 minimum. (213) 466-7000. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

For the epigraph of his bitter, bracing comedy “Do Not Miss the Main Attraction,” Damon Puckett chooses Tolstoy’s famous first lines from “Anna Karenina”: “All happy families are the same. All unhappy families are different in their own way.”

Guess which kind this Attic Theatre production scrutinizes? Mother (Elizabeth Ince), fed up with the philandering of Father (director Steve Domahidy, filling in on review night for Michael Waltman), is selling the furniture and quietly preparing for divorce. Live-in son Palmer (Jeff Parise), a.k.a. Tolstoy, is an agoraphobic failed writer. The remaining kids, arriving for what becomes a family farewell dinner, are a reformed prostitute (Ellie Archer), a bulimic (Kathlene McGovern), an antisocial cynic (Jay Willick) and an overeating nerd (Paul Benson).

There’s enough dysfunction here for three plays, which is part of the problem. Puckett crowds his canvas with too many characters grinding too many axes, while the tone oscillates from silly to nasty to somber and then back again. But at its best, the play reveals a deep, sometimes painful understanding of the destructive rivalries and buried resentments that can tear families to shreds.

Domahidy’s production includes some impressive performances--including an amusingly over-the-top turn from Parise--but has trouble bringing this problematic play into memorable focus.

* “Do Not Miss the Main Attraction,” Attic Theatre Centre, 6562 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8:30 p.m. Ends Feb. 10. $15. (213) 469-3786. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.