A Brooklyn lug dreams of roller-skating to stardom in “The Jammer,” a new comedy that strains so hard for laughs, it makes “Starlight Express” seem weighty by comparison.
It’s the 1950s, and Bushwick’s Jack Lovington (Patch Darragh) works as a factory worker by day and cab driver by night to make ends meet, spending what little free time he has at the local skating rink. Seems he’ll never have enough money to marry longtime fiancée Aurora (Keira Naughton), so when shady promoter Lenny Ringle (Billy Eugene Jones) invites him to join the New York Bombers on the touring circuit, Jack jumps, despite the warnings of his local priest (Todd Weeks).
Playwright Rolin Jones gives Jack plenty of colorful teammates, including the profane, sex-starved Linda Batello (Jeanine Serralles), who makes him question his commitment to Aurora. It also leads to a nasty disease, vividly described in a trip to the doctor’s office.
There, a horrified Lenny looks at his star player’s privates and gasps, “What’s with the barnacles, doc?”
That’s the bar for the jokes in “The Jammer” — the title refers to an aggressive style of skating — which seem more appropriate for late-night Comedy Central. Sacrificing character for caricature, it features such cheap running gags as the supposed homeliness of Jack’s fiancée.
“That’s a nice frame,” the priest gingerly comments when Jack proudly shows him her picture.
Director Jackson Gay keeps things moving at a suitably frenetic pace, with the actors athletically miming roller-skating moves while holding up cardboard cutouts representing fellow skaters. Wilson Chin’s cartoonish set design amusingly suggests everything from antique phone booths to the Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster on which the actors bounce around.
Darragh, last seen in off-Broadway’s “Kin,” is endearingly goofy as the innocent Jack, and the rest of the versatile ensemble, most of them playing multiple roles, give it their all. But despite their energetic efforts and the inventive staging, “The Jammer” mostly spins its wheels.