You remember the Pazinskis. You met them in Over the Tavern three years ago at Playhouse in the Park. It was 1959, pre-teen Rudy was doing Ed Sullivan impressions in his room and driving his family (to say nothing of Sister Clarissa) nuts because he had problems with being confirmed.

        You may also recall that pop Chet was an abusive domestic tyrant.

        The Pazinskis are back on the Playhouse stage, 10 years later in King o' the Moon. The action has moved from the tired little apartment over the tavern to a crummy “back yard” (asphalt with grass fighting up through the cracks here and there), so real you can almost smell the stale beer.

Now unhappy adults

        The meticulous design is superb in establishing a sense of place, which is working-class Buffalo, N.Y., circa 1969.

        I am sad to report that those cute Pazinski kids have pretty much turned into their father's children. For most of the play they are angry, hostile, self-concerned (as a means of survival) and they shout endlessly.

        Playwright Tom Dudzick pulls King together in its final scenes (although the finale is overlong). But by then, deeply unhappy older sister Annie (Rachel Fowler) has a vicious hair-tugging contest with her pregnant sister-in-law (Kelly Mares); formerly adorable Rudy (Christopher Drescher) is self-involved to the point of leaving his mentally disabled younger brother unattended; and older brother Eddie (Charlie Pollock) is demonstrating his father's bullying ways.

        It's mostly played for laughs, but the truths beneath the jokes are not funny. If you can buy into the surface comedy, you'll have a high old time. If it occurs to you that this is the stuff of bad family reunions, you'll be sneaking out at intermission.

        It is, as is almost always the case at Playhouse, a terrific production.

        Plot point after plot point are given contrived resolutions. Director Terence Lamude, an old hand at Mr. Dudzick's work, manages to make it play well until there's some meat to work with late in the proceedings.

A lot of changes

        The title refers to the historic moon landing of July 1969, which conveniently occurs over the same weekend as the annual State of the Family address to the late Chet, who died five years earlier.

        This year there is plenty to report: Mom (a terrific Cheryl Giannini) is involved in a budding, secret romance with Chet's best friend Walter (Steve Brady).

        Eddie is about to ship out to Vietnam, leaving behind his pregnant wife. Rudy is AWOL from the seminary, in order to get tear-gassed at a peace demonstration on his way home for the big family picnic and other business.

        Mr. Drescher isn't particularly believeable as Rudy, but Rudy isn't particularly believeable, and his gift for wiseacre one-liners has dulled. Geoffrey Molloy does a terrific job as mentally disabled Georgie. He pretty much has to be in his own play even as he's in everybody else's. It's a fine piece of work.

        The design is superb, starting with Bill Clarke's set, from the garage, which sports the ugliest siding on the planet, to the rusting iron lawn chairs and the squat tavern, sagging on its eaves.

        Martha Hally's period costuming is fabulous (Who remembered skorts?), especially Annie's sport flower-power daisies and a matching head scarf. Ms. Hally does as well by everyone else.

        Tom Sturge's fine lighting includes one heck of a full moon that rises like a rocket to hang low in the Buffalo night sky. Sound designer Tom Gould does his part to evoke a neighborhood where everybody knows everybody's business.

        It's ironic that King closes this season and Ah, Wilderness! opens it next fall, because there are obvious parallels. In both cases, the playwrights feel the need to turn a family in pain into something that feels better. Eugene O'Neill succeeded because he knew his demons and embraced them. Mr. Dudzick isn't there yet.

        King o' the Moon, through May 24, Playhouse in the Park, Eden Park. 421-3888.
       

Works in progress
1883 a true frontier for PBS families
DAUGHERTY: Everyday
Her avocation is collecting career-oriented Barbies
KENDRICK: Alive and well
Laying his illness on the line
TriHealth doctor gets more time to study alternatives
Carnegie celebrates centennial, renovation
Delhi Flower wins show's top prize
DEMALINE: The arts
'King' revisits dysfunctional family
MCGURK: Film notes
Miami draws Marsalis
MARTIN: Foodstuff
Serve it this week: Dill
Trot to Parker's or Turfway for Derby dining
Get to it