‘Cool Cops!’ Updates Burlesque for the ‘90s

Enter “Cool Cops!” at your own risk. You just might get thrown up against a wall and frisked before you’re escorted to your seat.

“Cool Cops!,” at the Actors’ Gang’s refurbished small theater, outrageously parodies police corruption. A cross between “NYPD Blue” and “Naked Gun,” this hard-boiled yet hilarious comedy is testosterone-fueled and broad in the extreme. Call this new wave burlesque, retrograde naughtiness couched in a lacerating, almost surreal ‘90s sensibility.

On the day of his retirement, jaded 17-year police veteran Woody Durbin (Lee Arenberg), author of a tell-all book about the department, is mowed down by an unseen assailant. It looks like an inside job; in fact, all Durbin’s coked-out associates on the force, from the Chief (Ned Bellamy) to sexpot vice officer Baby Doll McCallister (Cynthia Ettinger) are suspects.

Directed by Jason Reed and scripted by Reed and Kirk Ward, the show was work-shopped over the course of several months by the cast. Live drum music by Johnny “Vatos” Hernandez of Oingo Boingo sets the pace for this percussive, high-energy play, which is conducted at the decibel level of a rock concert. A prolonged comedy sketch, “Cool Cops!” cannot ultimately sustain its manic pace--but by then, we are limp with laughter and ready for a rest.

* “Cool Cops!,” Actors’ Gang/El Centro Theater, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Fridays, 10:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10:30 p.m. Indefinitely. $10. (213) 466-1767. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.