It’s not safe to preach Gospel to an anticapitalist. Just ask Chris, the unseen college student who, in A.R. Gurney’s new comedy, “Heresy,” is jailed for arguing that the mere word “consumer” is terrible.
His parents, Mary (Annette O’Toole, looking as if she was auditioning for Ma Kettle) and Joseph (Steve Mellor) come to plead his case with the local jackbooted prefect, Pontius Pilate (Reg E. Cathey) — Ponty to his friends.
In case you’re still unclear where this ham-fisted, mortifying satire is going, Joseph’s a carpenter and Chris is involved with a prostitute named Lena. As in Magdalene.
Yeah, we got it: Jesus would be considered a dangerous radical today, and the historical record gets distorted by those who are supposed to preserve it — an assistant named Mark (Tommy Crawford) takes some liberties with the meeting’s minutes.
Sadly, the prolific Gurney (“Love Letters,” “The Dining Room”) has dreamed up an alternative America that hates free thought but loves bad jokes. Most of these are delivered by Pilate’s socialite wife, Phyllis, played with delicious zest by Kathy Najimy.
She’s the sole bright spot in this debacle, but musical-theater stalwart Karen Ziemba (“Contact”) is replacing her come Oct. 19. At least one made it out of this mess.