STAGE REVIEW : Groundlings’ Autumn Salute

The title, “Groundlings Salute to Autumn,” may be more mock-corny than most Groundlings revue monikers, but it’s also more apt.

A few sketches here actually have something to do with autumn: a funny, dithering report on the new “fall line” in fashion, or a glance at three biddies who share the table at a polling place and gossip about the occasional voters.

And in one of the Groundlings’ most pointed political sketches ever, well-timed for the election, Jim Wise and Vic Wilson play unemployed aerospace engineers standing on a street corner holding placards seeking work and performing yet another updated variation on the famous staging of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” You can compare notes with the similar scene in “Bob Roberts.”

Local issues aren’t completely ignored. A solo by Karen Maruyama, as a strapped teacher with a class numbering 200, looks at budget cuts in the troubled L.A. Unified School District with cutting wit.

Vic Wilson and John Cervenka do a biting take on urban paranoia, as experienced at an automatic teller machine.

Other solos and sketches are less topical, but many of them are equally accomplished, with especially sharp performances by Heather Morgan and Patrick Bristow. Phyllis Katz directed.

“ Groundlings Salute to Autumn,” Groundlings Theatre, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A., Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 8 and 10 p.m. Indefinitely. $15.50-$17.50. (213) 934-9700. Running time: 2 hours.