Comedy has style and verve

The language was salty and the antics bawdy, but Del Shores' comedy "Sordid Lives" manages to combine the influences of such Texas playwrights as James McClure and Preston Jones into a sparkling evening of humor and heartache.

Whether or not you approve of Rob Maniscalco's wearing a lace bra, or the off-color lyrics sung by guitarist Pam Hayes, you will never be bored during the show that opened Friday at the Footlight Players.

With verve and style, Don Brandenburg directed a large, talented cast. Among them is Laura Hunt — in a chartreuse, glitter camisole and tight jeans — as LaVonda, who seeks to free her transvestite brother from a mental institution where he had been held for 23 years.

Rhonda Kierpiec was priceless as Sissy as she calmly took the news that her sister, Peggy, had been killed in a motel room by tripping over her married lover's wooden legs. As she calms down the lover's wife, well played by Melonea Locklair, by giving her Valium and fried chicken, Kierpiec delivers downhome Texas humor in rapid-fire order.

The star of the show is Boogie Dabney as Ty, a soap-opera star who delivers several monologues describing his life as a gay person and having to "act all butch." Wonderfully plausible is Melanie Cason as Ty's mother, who tries to deny that her son is gay.

Jeff Craver is heartbreaking and hilarious in his sessions with a psychiatrist who tries to make him straight. For a crazy evening with a serious subtext, go see the show through April 5 at 20 Queen St.