Review: ‘Thicker Than Water,’ a sitcom with a side of spaghetti at Theatre West

Fifteen years ago, Roy Battocchio’s “Thicker Than Water” had its world premiere at Theatre West and quickly became one of the most popular offerings in the now-53-year-old theater’s history.

The play has returned to test its durability as a crowd pleaser. There’s little denying that “Thicker” is thin, with a sitcom-light premise and stereotypical characters that sometimes burst the seams of believability. But even though Battocchio’s one-liners sometimes land with a thud, director Stu Berg and an able cast glean their fair share of laughs in a mostly charming production.

Successful Hollywood television writer Tommy Corelli (Joseph Bongiovanni) has returned to the bosom of his Italian American family for the first time in years. Tommy thinks his dad, Dominick (Vincent Palmieri), is gravely ill, but his siblings, Carmine (Johnny Ferretti) and Marie (Heather Alyse Becker) soon admit that story was a ruse to get Tommy’s help with something else. It seems that their Aunt Gertrude (Constance Mellors), wife of Dominick’s henpecked brother Albert (David Mingrino), is about to take over the family’s construction business and put them all out of work.

Carmine and Marie have a drastic solution that will make the whole problem go away, but they’re not the only ones with bright ideas, and Tommy soon finds himself the stooge in a triple-whammy of lame-brained plots that seem certain to end in disaster.

Jeff G. Rack’s wonderfully detailed set is the ideal setting for this blue-collar clan, whose taste extends only as far homemade marinara. Among the cast, Maria Kress stands out as Carmine’s sweetly dotty schoolteacher girlfriend, while Mary Garripoli delights as a warmly nurturing matriarch with a matter-of-fact murderous streak. Jack Kutcher plays a doddering doctor. Anchored by Bongiovanni’s deadpan performance, the performers tear into their roles as if they were playing grand opera -- just the right tack for their overblown material.

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“Thicker Than Water”

Where: Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles

When: 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 20.

Tickets: $25

Info: (323) 851-7977, www.theatrewest.org

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes