Catch a Rising Par The uproarious Golf: The musical is fun for the whole foursome.

By Connell Barrett, Associate Editor, Golf Magazine.

Golf has inspired countless films, books, magazines -- even a reality show. But musical theater? It just seems…wrong. What's next, Cricket: A One-Man Show? But instead of being the worst links-related idea since Sansabelts, Golf: The Musical, playing in New York City’s John Houseman Theater, is a charming -- and often biting -- ode to the grand old game.

Writer Michael Roberts’ two-hour revue is a cavalcade of gags, puns and ditties, in the form of 18 musical vignettes. The likable cast (a foursome, of course) is uniformly terrific, with Trisha Rapier, the sole lady golfer, shining brightest—and bawdiest. She's a young, sexy Carol Burnett with a serious set of pipes, which she shamelessly flaunts (while wearing an alluring pleated plaid skirt and pink top) in "Golf’s Such a Naughty Game." "The Road to Heaven" reunites Bing Crosby and Bob Hope in the afterlife, and two-time Tony nominee Joel Blum has the late comedian down cold: "My wife and I make love almost every day of the week," he tells Bing (Sal Viviano). "Almost Tuesday, almost Wednesday, almost Thursday..." And you have to admire a show that throws in a rim-shot without irony.

Directed and choreographed by Christopher Scott, from a concept by Eric Krebs, "Golf" finds the thick stuff on a few holes (there's an obvious, Mark Russell-like ode to plaid). But mostly, we get terrific slapstick and sharp observations. In the scathing number "No Blacks, No Chicks, No Jews," Christopher Sutton and Viviano are good-ol'-boy gatekeepers at a southern country club who take great pleasure in rejecting minority applicants: "This black candidate is inferior/ He wouldn’t match the interior," "The process is so slow here/We still have Jim Crow here." And the exhibits in a surreal golf museum won't soon be turning up in Far Hills, N.J. "Here's Bing Crosby, his swing is kind of wild/And here's the club he liked to use to beat his child." The Capitol Steps, it isn't.

Still, Roberts and Scott know that satire is what closes on Saturday night, so the mood remains light. Throw in some door prizes and audience participation, and "Golf: The Musical" is as fun and funny as something called "Golf: The Musical" can possibly be.