Sin Not Funny?

* “Sin is not funny,” according to the sign carried by two men demonstrating outside the SNAP! comedy, My Big Gay Italian Wedding. I assumed the sin they had in mind was suggested by the title of the show playing at 3225 California St. Since we are sinners all since Adam’s Fall, I suspect the protesters also commit all sorts of sins cited in Leviticus, but I don’t want to argue about what they find sinful. Funny, however, is another matter. I’m pretty sure Maurizio Legrande, the flaming wedding coordinator played by Joey Galda, is very funny. ThereseRennels is funny as Toniann, the aunt of groom-to-be Anthony Pinnunziato (Ryan Eberhard). Add Lorie Obradovich and Mark Cramer as his parents plus Angie Heim and Liz Mulhern as two feuding lesbian maids-of-honor and you’re inclined to conclude if this be sin, sin is funny. To find otherwise may require concluding that the entire human condition is not funny and then you’ve about ruled out any kind of comedy. So, fellows, you could demonstrate outside the Omaha Community Playhouse because the gambling in Guys and Dolls is not funny. That might even lead, heaven forbid, to the concern that Adelaide’s psychosomatic cold isn’t funny which would make me delusional since I thought Kirsten Kluver was so funny I couldn’t recall a more brilliant performance in a musical comedy. (I parted company with Bob Fischbach’s review which paired the performance of Seth Shirley with her Adelaide at the two big reasons to see the show. Yes, he’s good-looking and sings well, but his Sky Masterson wasn’t mature enough to rank, for example, above the Nathan Detroit of Jonathan Hickerson.) * Speaking of pairings, one week after Wicked makes the fastest return run in recent musical theater history the Blue Barn brings back the musical parody Reefer Madness, which also encores only two years after its award-winning run in the Downtown Space. It’s a sure thing since director Susan Clement-Toberer reassembled all the leads — Paul Hanson, Jenn Tritz, Marty Marchitto, Theresa Sindelar, Ryan Pivonka, Bailey Carlson and Ben Beck—from the 2009 hit. The marijuana madness runs June 2-26. Across the river, Chanticleer opens the musical Once Upon a Mattress with Dwayne Ibsen directing daughter Ariel as Winnifred and Chris Ebke as Dauntless. This take on the princess and the pea story runs June 3-19. Cold Cream looks at theater in the metro area. Email information to coldcream@thereader.com.