‘Lemon Meringue’ Dips Into Race

It’s a self-styled case of “the blond leading the blond” when a quartet of insulated, golden-coifed girlfriends are unexpectedly forced to navigate the unfamiliar shoals of interracial tensions in “Lemon Meringue Facade,” writer-director Ted Lange’s new comedy at the Whitefire Theatre.

The discovery that one of them is dating a black actor (James A. Watson Jr.) is only the beginning of the shocks in store for pampered but painfully pregnant Linda (Shano Palovich) and her peroxide partners-in-gossip (Kim Lankford, Marla Rubinoff and Jill Whelan).

Despite taking much too long establishing the vapid preoccupations and unreflected prejudices of his four protagonists, Lange picks up the pace and brings deeper issues to the surface in a much sharper second act.

With two separate casts appearing on alternate weekends, performance mileage will vary. In the reviewed lineup, Whelan’s transformation from Orange County prude to ebonics-slinging soul sister was the comedic high point, while Palovich brought emotional conviction to her character’s pivotal decision to buck the socially acceptable path mapped out for her by her meddling mother (Audrey Gelfand) and insecure husband (Gary Van Nastu).

There’s no mistaking any of the ensuing antics for realistic behavior from any of these stereotypes, but even in an innocuous context Lange raises some thoughtful challenges to the status quo in race relations.

*

* “Lemon Meringue Facade,” Whitefire Theatre, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends March 15. $15-$20. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.