Much Bonding Among ‘Five Women’

When a playwright puts five women in the same room for a prolonged period of time, what can you expect? Female bonding? But of course. Zingy one-liners? Natch. Labored emotional revelations about their lives and relationships? You betcha.

If the women are Southerners, you immediately up the comic ante. (There’s just something about a buttery Southern accent that is naturally conducive to comedy.) If the women are bridesmaids, dishing the dirt behind the scenes of a posh wedding reception, you’ve got a Southern-fried recipe for laughs.

Essentially, you’ve also got the same threadbare situation that was already worn thin in “Steel Magnolias.”

There’s no doubt that Alan Ball’s “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress” at the Met Theatre is occasionally uproarious. Ball, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “American Beauty,” is a master of glib yak, as evidenced by his characters’ prolific and funny chit-chat. However, Ball’s play, first produced in 1993, is derivative of any number of female bonding comedies--diverting in the short term but insubstantial upon closer examination.

Don’t dig too deeply into the thin conceit, though, and you will almost certainly be entertained. The company is congenial, and a warm ensemble spirit prevails in David P. Moore’s lively staging, while Gillian Morris’ exquisitely detailed bedroom set is so richly realized, you want to move in and live there.

David Holcomb, the sole male in the piece, more than holds his own amid this charming and cackling gaggle, which includes Jody Booth, Jennifer Jacobson, Jessie L. Marion and the nicely wry A.K. Paxton, as an unapologetically round-heeled siren. Linda Eve Miller is especially hilarious as the bounteously built Georgeanne, a quintessentially Southern mix of effusion and drollery. --F.K.F.

* “Five Women Wearing the Same Dress,” Met Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m. Ends July 2. $15. (818) 623-6607. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.