‘Gore More Years’: Political Satire Runs Mild

It’s an excellent season for political satire, which doesn’t mean it isn’t also a challenging one. With the Democrats in town, and “news” developments developing as they, uh, develop . . . with “The Daily Show” making plenty wisecracks (good, too, a lot of them) for free on TV . . . with Pat Buchanan scoring big laughs every time he stops to take a breath from his anti-homosexuality project . . . yes, the genuine live-action satirists have a job to do.

Easy? No, which helps explain the wobbly frequency of “Gore More Years, or Son of a Bush,” the latest from the Washington, D.C., comedy troupe Gross National Product.

Continuing through Oct. 1 at the Odyssey Theatre, “Gore More Years” gets off some nice ones. Christopher Pray, a man born to impersonate William F. Buckley (which he does), offers a brief cameo as Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who refers to his running mate as “Al Goy.”

The googly eyed performer then takes on Dick Cheney, the $20-million-dollar man, George W. Bush’s ticket enhancer. Defending his pro-gun, anti-Head Start voting record, Cheney explains calmly that “because of my medical condition, I try to use my heart as little as possible.” Dryly delivered, Pray’s Cheney is a highlight. Indeed, during Saturday’s rather rocky opening night performance, that line got the only spontaneous round of applause.

Much of “Gore More Years” settles for some surprisingly dated material. Liddy Dole and South Carolina GOP stalwart Strom Thurmond time-warp their way from ‘96, and for a capper, GNP veterans John Simmons (the “UnArtistic Director”) and Christine Thompson play a couple of shrill New Age self-help gurus.

You wouldn’t mind the moldy stuff--if the individual impersonations carried some zing. Four years ago, around GOP convention time in San Diego, the GNP show “On the Dole” featured a riotous Bill Clinton, courtesy of Bob Heck. Simmons made for an extremely irritable and amusing Bob Dole. The current show’s re-creations of Gore and Bush and company are far less persuasive in the main, though Jim Ward’s Dubya vocally captures the candidate’s pesky petulance. (“Even though America owes me this election . . . .”)

There’s another issue here. “Gore More Years” has a somewhat disheartened quality to it. Simmons and company refer to Gore’s apparent unelectability in the smirking face of Dubya’s polls. The show carries a clear pro-Democratic bias (or at least it proves that Bush makes for better satiric fodder than Gore). Yet it’s only fitfully passionate about its targets. Some sketches, such as the Charlton Heston-hosted “History of the Gun,” sponsored by the National Rifle Assn., never hit their stride.

You settle instead for the occasional well-aimed one-liner, such as this, from the show’s Bush / Cheney ticket: “The Republican Party is the party of inclusion. And we have been for the last two weeks.”

In San Diego four years ago, the GNP troupe retailored its material throughout the run, responding to the latest news. The same could and should happen here. “Gore More Years” needs some up-to-the-minute nastiness. I mean, there’s a reason a guy like Pat Buchanan keeps running for president: He runs because he knows, in his heart, he’s helping folks in the business of making fun of guys like him.

* “Gore More Years, or Son of a Bush,” Gross National Product at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd.; Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Also 2 p.m. Sun. Sept. 10 and Oct. 1. Ends Oct. 1. $19.50-$23.50. Pay-what-you-can Aug. 24, Sept. 10 and Sept. 14. (310) 477-2055. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

John Simmons, Christine Thompson, Christopher Pray, Jim Ward, Dorian Frankel, Michael Oosterom Ensemble

Written by John Simmons, Joel Perry, Doug Cox, John Moody, Christine Thompson, Christopher Pray and Company. Directed by John Simmons. Musical directors David Zee and Richard Koldewyn. Scenic design by Molly Bonneval. Lighting by Genny Wynn. Stage manager Laura Spivey.