Actors play actors in ‘Redneck’ tale

Even in an era when crassness reigns, politically incorrect satire seldom has the lowbrow bravura of “7 Redneck Cheerleaders,” which returns to the Elephant Asylum Theatre in raucous estate.

“Cheerleaders,” restaged by author Louis Jacobs and co-producer David Fofi after Amy French’s original 2005 direction, is an outrageous sendup of the small theater scene. Its protagonist: Ben, a post-Woody Allen naif who heeds dead Aunt Lottie and stages his first play in a Santa Monica Boulevard venue himself.

After casting a cross-section of archetypes, from ultra-serious thespian and airhead tootsy to swishy queen and lesbian pothead, Ben starts rehearsing his hysterically ambitious memoir of Southern family resistance to his cheerleading aims. As the deceptively bare Elephant Stageworks set adds increasingly cheesier decor, Ben’s trial by foulmouthed fire unfolds.

Neophyte author-directors, take note. Stay calm when the self-adoring theater owner playing your abusive father hijacks warmups. Never underestimate an aggressive bulimic’s fixation on you. And always secure things backstage -- making theater in Hollywood is hard enough without incurring fatalities.

A terrific rotating roster of hambones vaults across its bipolar duties. Tony Foster makes a winningly unstrung Ben. Jeremy Glazer’s sunny hunklet and the competitive nymphets of Zibby Allen and Iris Bahr are priceless. Alexandra Hoover’s meta-actress, Anthony Roman’s egomaniac, Cheryl Huggins’ stoner and Tom Stanczyk’s lavender advocate finish the fearless lineup, which counts Jacobs, Fofi and co-producer Don Cesario among its alternates.

Their convulsive, in-joke-laden antics and Chris Game’s country and western soundtrack carry the R-rated uproar past errant stabs at sentiment and an outre climactic twist. At the finale, the cast and Kim Negrete’s lighting design go bonkers and take the audience with them. Not since Justin Tanner has a local scribe so gleefully bitten the hand that doesn’t feed him.

*

‘7 Redneck Cheerleaders’

Where: Elephant Asylum Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays

Ends: Sept. 2

Price: $20

Contact: (323) 960-4410 or www.plays411.com/redneck

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes