Campy humor was a big deal in the ’80s, and few did it better than the Ridiculous Theatrical Company. That troupe even scored an unlikely off-Broadway hit with Charles Ludlam’s 1984 romp “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” a zany tribute to sensational melodramas, gothic romances and fantastical dime-store tales.
The twist: Two actors play every role, resulting in lightning-fast costume changes and, of course, cross-dressing.
The concept means that casting is key to a production’s success, and the Red Bull company’s revival — directed by Ridiculous alum and original “Vep” co-star Everett Quinton — falls somewhere in the middle.
Robert Sella and Arnie Burton sure work up a sweat switching from haughty housekeeper to vampire to English lord to werewolf to English lady to Egyptian mummy. But they aren’t always as funny as you wish they’d be — not everything is on the expert level of Sella’s hilarious drunk scene.
Still, the show barrels along, and there are so many gags that many do land: A book is so boring that people fall asleep just looking at a page; an Egyptian guide nonchalantly pulls a lit cigarette from under his fez.
We don’t get near the peaks of high camp, but those hills are nothing to sniff at.