A Full Plate of Fun in ‘Fully Committed’

Becky Mode’s hilarious “Fully Committed” requires a full commitment from its solo actor. He plays not only a harried reservationist at a booked-up (“fully committed”) Manhattan restaurant, but also several dozen of the man’s customers and colleagues.

It’s a killer assignment--but also one that actors would probably kill for. Anyone who does it well is going to linger for a long time in the minds of the audience.

Mark Setlock, who co-created the characters with Mode and was the first actor in the role--here as well as in New York--has moved on to perform the show in Boston. Replacing him at the Coronet Theatre is Ethan Sandler, who’s just as funny.

Sandler looks more boyishly innocent than Setlock, which makes his eventual skill at playing the restaurant’s political games slightly more surprising.

Mode’s script offers more to munch on than most solo shows. Not only does she paint a vivid portrait of a struggling and much-abused actor whose day job is pampering the privileged, but she demonstrates how the actor himself might become abusive too, if he doesn’t watch what he’s doing.

Sandler, who previously performed the show in San Francisco, has also mastered the other characters. Watch him tug on the shoulders of his sweat-drenched T-shirt to suggest a furious socialite. Listen to his dunderheaded laugh as the absent co-worker who calls in with a lame excuse. Observe the timing as he switches on a dime from telephone screamer to reticent Midwesterner.

This is a performance to savor.

*

* “Fully Committed,” Coronet Theatre, 366 N. La Cienega Blvd., L.A., Tuesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 p.m; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Indefinitely. $25-$45. (310) 657-7377. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.