The Serendipity Playhouse Gambles On Local Satire. By Howard Allen SHOWS LIKE BABYLON Tucson are a staple product Off-Off Broadway and in many major cities. They satirize the local political and cultural scene using sketch comedy and spoofs of familiar stories. Music and lyrics composed especially for the shows frequently add fun to the proceedings. Even Phoenix can boast a successful example of this genre. In the last few years, two versions of Guv have skewered Evan Mecham's Arizona and J. Fife Symington's Arizona. One sign Tucson has arrived as a metro center will be an audience large enough to relish the satire of a show like Babylon Tucson. Its writer-director Nick Seivert is the new artistic director of Serendipity Playhouse on Tucson's east side. The plan for Babylon Tucson is to change, grow and update itself every few months with new material on the Baked Apple. But that can only happen if the audience and the product find each other. And this show is still in its awkward stage--with performers and writers finding their best ways to collaborate. In the current chaotic state of Tucson's small theatre scene, comedy with a satirical edge hopes to take hold in a theatre on the edge, Serendipity Playhouse, which has gone through some big changes in the last few years. Seivert and his co-writers from the Sweatlodge Comedy Show (Terry Owen, Elliot Glicksman, Dave Fitzsimmons and Dave Sullivan) take some very funny shots at "the Circle K of the Damned," the Arizona International Campus, cyber cafes and other deserving targets. Seivert plays a role himself in Babylon Tucson, not to mention joining his guitar-playing to a very good stage band that included Musical Director Lisa Lemay on piano and Todd Hammes on percussion the night I saw the show. The irony of the former artistic director of the Gaslight Theatre on the stage of the former Gaslight Theatre will hit longtime Tucson theatre-goers. And the comparison does not stop there. Babylon Tucson includes a musical olio, a curtain-raiser with songs from the early '60s, that does not connect at all with the tone and targets of the show that follows. The show's young cast quickly jump out of their surfer shirts and into their roles: Rebecca Spina as Taffy, who runs the cyber cafe of the title, Babylon Tucson; Joseph Romanov as Pinecone, the cyber junkie online in the cafe; Larry Fuller as Fish, the wise-cracking friend of Pinecone; Raquel Staves as Fleeno, the quiet "mystery" woman; Jolene Muller as J.J., the neo-Beat poet; and Nick Cianciotto as Curt, J.J.'s significant other. Seivert plays Bob Girth, the cafe owner who has found a Mysterious Orb in the airplane graveyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. The writing tilts in favor of gags and stand-up routines over character development and story. The actors often struggle with this kind of dialogue, because it can be a little like reciting a Letterman monologue. Cianciotto and particularly Staves deserve a lot of credit for their commitment to selling the singing and dancing as much as they dove into their roles. Romanov's Pinecone may be the play's best creation--in the writing and the acting. Fuller's character, Fish, and Spina's Taffy, point up the many comparisons to be made between Babylon Tucson and the TV show Friends. Muller's J.J. is a hoot in the poetic recitations. Seivert's character comes from his own stand-up persona, and improvising his Bob Girth lines has led him to a character whose comedy works on more levels. If the other actors had improvised their characters, perhaps more of the show might work. The painted sets and lighting design by Don Yunker, Susan Venema, Dave Fitzsimmons and Dave Darland add a lot to the humor of Babylon Tucson. And the show is funny. It deserves to find its audience. This latest incarnation of the Serendipity Playhouse could develop over the long term into Tucson's version of Chicago's Second City. Babylon Tucson continues through Sunday, October 27, at the Serendipity Playhouse, 7000 E. Tanque Verde Road. Tickets are $11 for adults, $6 for children 12 and under, and $9 for seniors, military personnel and students with I.D., with group discounts available. Bring a non-perishable food contribution for the Community Food Bank and receive a $1 discount. Show time is 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. Call 751-4445 for reservations and information.

		© 1995-97 Tucson Weekly . Info Booth