Patience Pays Off in Groundlings’ Latest

It takes a long time before the Groundlings’ new show, “Groundlings & the Tijuana Brass,” hits its mark. Opening salvos about a 1960s British rock group, a demented office worker and a predictably weird television evangelist seem more effective as character studies than as comedy, and the sole improv piece (another was canceled at show time) was thin on the night this reviewer attended.

Yet although it’s not one of the group’s strongest efforts, this scattershot evening glints with occasional comic brilliance: Steven Cragg and Michael Loprete knock us out as Italian gangsters in a bizarre street brawl; Sean Hogan’s videotaped celebrity impersonations are dead-on; “corporate recruiters” David Jahn and Chris Parnell perform an uproarious musical tribute to their conglomerate, a notorious environmental polluter.

In a howlingly silly segment, Chase Winton and Jennifer Coolidge play elegant yet flatulent wedding consultants, classic characters who reduce us to hiccuping hysteria with their keenly timed eruptions. At this performance, however, the actresses’ own uncontrollable laughter detracted from their piece’s comic momentum.

Others in the cast also tend to break character at regular intervals. For the benefit of future audiences, veteran Groundling director Deanna Oliver had best remind her exuberant ensemble that comedy, at least as far as its performers are concerned, is no laughing matter.

* “Groundlings & the Tijuana Brass,” 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. Indefinitely. $17.50. (213) 934-9700. Running time: 2 hours.