'Nutterly Love' funny, maybe not enough Philly

In a lot of ways, City of Nutterly Love: Funny as Bell!, the Philadelphia Theatre Company's collaboration with Chicago's improv and sketch comedy troupe Second City, celebrates everything that's great about Philadelphia. You know, the Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin impersonators, the way it's customary for Mayor Nutter to personally greet theater audiences during a show's opening number.

Yes, even Hizzoner gets in on the spooftastic action, a metro-centric formula that has worked thrice already for Second City - in Denver, Pittsburgh and Atlanta - though obviously never before in such a worthy locale (Come on, what's so funny about Pittsburgh? Well, besides that it's Pittsburgh.) Joining Chicagoans Edgar Blackmon, Rachel Miller, Katie Rich, and piano accompanist/musical director Bryan Dunn onstage are Mary Carpenter, David Dritsas, and Eoin O'Shea, all vets of Philly's longtime improv troupe Comedy Sportz.

1812 Productions' head honcha, Jennifer Childs, provided dramaturgical assistance to writers T.J. Shanoff and Ed Furman in the show's quest for authenticity, and though there's not an accent up there that can match Childs' own evergreen sketch character - the step-sitting, truth-talking Patsy - you can't fault 'em for effort. And really, they do try. This is a good-natured collection of skits and improvisations (One of those improvisations crafts sketches around audience-suggested words. On opening night, those words included University City and scrapple). The bits explore territory both well-trod and slightly less-so, with some generic laugh-getters thrown in. If you will, it's a lot of Broad Street, a little Juniper, with a few exits onto I-95.

The show's first act is something of a bait-and-switch, its endemic shout-outs propping up the all-purpose humor of a snooty Borders book clerk and a suspiciously casual art museum audio tour that refers to its medieval galleries as the "Big Baby Jesus age." An often too-heavy reliance on the puerile allows the show to retain its late-night, cocktail-service, sketch-troupe vibe for better or for worse, but without mixers, some of its humor is less effervescent than it might otherwise seem.

However, by the second act, the company hits its stride, with funny takes - musical and otherwise - on Fancy Mummer foppery, New York-bashing, and one topical joke so hot it could jump in a pool to cool off - if only it were allowed in. But mostly Nutterly Love is softball satire, less fightin' Phils than Philly Phanatic, pitching Nerf-syle squishies designed not to offend. These are easy marks, with maybe a third of the show either not at all city-specific or retaining an "insert local joke here" structure. Which is fine, though a bit of a disappointment. You should just know going in that it ain't all Philly all the time, because, you know, our spectators are capable of anything, and if we're willing to snowball Santa - an episode that gets lots of mileage here - who knows what we might do to a bunch of actors?

Playing at: Philadelphia Theatre Company, Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., Philadelphia. Through July 26. Tickets: $34 to $39.

Information: 866-985-0420 or www.PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org

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