By Lynn Venhaus

They say write what you know, and Gary F. Bell and Robert L. White, former roommates in New York City, have done just that.

They have collaborated on an original broad farce, “3 Sheets to the Wind,” which is about throwing different personalities together in a cramped three-bedroom apartment in New York City.

What happens when three ex-lovers converge in the same space, where neighbors and an out-of-town theater troupe breeze in and out? Wackiness ensues. It’s a familiar plot device not unlike popular sitcoms “The Odd Couple,” “Three’s Company” and “Will & Grace.”

Bell, founder and artistic director of Stray Dog Theatre in 2003, has built a loyal following at the intimate Tower Grove Abbey, producing a season of comedies, dramas and musicals. He and White premiered another collaboration in 2015, an original musical “Spellbound! A Musical Fable.”

Long a fan of the camp style of playwright and drag queen legend Charles Busch, Bell has directed with great verve the wildly popular “Red Scare on Sunset,” “Psycho Beach Party” and “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.”

Favoring that type of template, Bell and White blend melodrama with parodies of soap operas and Broadway musicals for this show, sprinkling witty pop culture references – especially clever theater ones – into the dialogue.

But what started out as an interesting premise dissolve into a messy story with too many over-the-top characters that have either too little to do or are entangled in nonsense, so they pull focus away from an already flimsy story.

Sadly, as good as these performers are on paper, the roles are a mixed bag of either over or under-written cartoonish characters that fail to sustain interest through two acts with an overlong runtime of 2 hours, 40 minutes with a 10-minute intermission.

The 9-member cast, a hefty blend of remarkably talented local theater artists, some with St. Louis Theater Circle nominations and wins to their credit, are not having their finest hour, even though they appear to be giving each part their all as consummate professionals.

Improv master Joe Garner, as struggling writer Oliver Morton, and versatile Jeffrey M. Wright, as television therapist Aaron Addison, for lack of a better word, are playing the ‘straight’ guys in this oddball circus. They’re the only ones whose characters seem bland, their wild pajamas notwithstanding.

Aaron plans to move back in with Oliver, as platonic roommates, to help with Oliver’s dire financial straits. Wright, now a reality TV personality, tells Oliver that he and his partner are on the rocks.

Enter the goofy, very theatrical Danny Winslow, embodied by the nimble comic actor Mike Wells, who’s fast-talking spiel is a cross between Harold Hill in “The Music Man” and the con artists in “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”

He arrives needing a place to stay, because he’s brought good news with him. Once a couple, the pair collaborated on a high-concept musical, which flopped, leaving Oliver in massive debt (and very angry). Lo and behold, Danny announces that a wealthy benefactor wants to remount the show in Guam and Yap, part of Micronesia in the Western Pacific.

But Danny is not alone — he has three actors in tow: a flamboyant diva and two young very fit dancers. Danny’s raring to revise their songs with Oliver, as the clock is ticking.

But more may not be merrier. Larina Delagostino (Sarah Polizzi) is an unfiltered prima donna without any boundaries who specializes in treating everyone like servants, drinking too much, yammering about her life in the theater, and dipping in not-safe-for-work territory.

That type of exaggerated role is Polizzi’s forte, but the character is so off-putting and rambling that she can’t muster any sympathy, and her affectations are a cross between Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” and a Southern belle, sporting an ill-fitting red wig. Larina is soon wearing out her welcome, not to mention the cringy bathroom humor at her expense.

Oliver’s busybody and TMI neighbors, Maddie and Cal O’Connor (Sarajane Clark and Jason Meyers), stop by, either for cocktails or to dish, as Maddie is fond of telling everyone else what they should do. The two young guys trying to make sense of all the chaos are Zack Huels as Abe Feldman and Brady Stiff as Jake Hershman.

Wells, clad in outlandish outfits designed by Colleen Michelson, incorporates physicality as this silly trickster, an extreme sidekick in the mold of Cosmo Kramer. But he is dead serious about one thing – Danny recommends the playwrights ‘kill their darlings.’ He encourages Oliver to nip and tuck, and that’s good advice for the play itself.

Rob Lippert’s set design includes multiple doors, a la “Lend Me a Tenor” and “Noises Off!”, for comedic purposes. Tyler Duenow took care of the lighting design. As usual, sound designer Justin Been selected peppy and upbeat musical transitions including TV theme songs.

For “3 Sheets to the Wind” to work, the well-intentioned playwrights need to tighten the rambling story, for when Liz Michel shows up as Russian-accented emissary Zolda (think Natasha of “Rocky and Bullwinkle”) near the two and a half hour mark, it goes off the rails.

Suddenly, we have spies, a dictator who’s madly in love with Larina, and a charade about why the show is going overseas, all told in a very long-drawn-out monologue. Shades of the Cold War? Isn’t Guam a U.S. territory? What am I missing? By this point, connecting the dots has become confusing, and the sound isn’t helping these dialogue-heavy sequences, especially with accents in play.

In this case, less would be far more appealing. Snip some tangents and characters for a less bumpy dynamic and inject more likability to connect with the audience.

Besides the shenanigans going on, the play takes place in the present-day, in August and September, when NYC is experiencing a heat wave. Is that weather factor necessary?

Old partners working again on a show after much time apart, when old resentments surface and new acquaintances appear, would be a terrific starting point going back to workshop.

Stray Dog Theatre presents “3 Sheets to the Wind” from June 4 through 20 at Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee Avenue, St. Louis. Performance dates are Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinee performances at 2 p.m. on June 7 and 14. For more information, visit www.straydogtheatre.org