Theatricals -- City Hall Theatre tonight, tomorrow and Monday.

If you've ever wondered what "My Fair Lady'' might have looked like if it had been written by Tolstoy, directed by Mel Brooks and choreographed by Flo Ziegfeld, do not look any further -- the Hasty Pudding Theatricals are back in Bermuda and they've taken on the Pygmalion myth (among many others) in a way that would have had Shaw reeling.

To be more specific, the Harvard University troupe's 147th stage production -- called "A Tsar Is Born'' -- is a loopy cross between "My Fair Lady'' and the 1993 Kevin Kline movie "Dave'', wherein the President of the United States is incapacitated by a stroke and replaced by an idiot lookalike.

In this case, the Tsar of Russia is pronounced brain-dead by his scheming Tsarina and subsequently impersonated by a thick-as-wood postman who talks like Cliff Claven from "Cheers'' and turns out to be of royal blood (or, as written by Mark Baskin and Jason Cooper, in possession of the "royal wart'').

Of course, the plot of "A Tsar Is Born'' -- which includes a desperate race by the men-only village of Undergrad to find wives in 24 hours and thereby avoid eviction by the evil town magistrate Sir Noble Meltdown -- is merely an excuse for the players, a sort of drag-queen Dream Team, to go on a camp rampage.

In this fabulous farce, the Tsar's daughter swaps brains with a hunchback, the invading French forces consist of three man-hating harpies in stiletto heels and the obligatory singing nuns that close the production ultimately strip down to reveal the devil within.

That bit, an exuberant striptease that had the house in hysterics on Wednesday night, is just one of the many wonderful musical numbers that pepper this clever comedy. Others in the oh-so-short-at-two-hours-plus production include the "Cow Medley'' (a side-splitting flashback to the early career of bovine torch singer Bess Western), "Tsar Wars'' (which includes a hilarious send-up of the slo-mo battle scene in Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V'') and "But Nyet For Me'' ( Andrew Burlinson's rather touching appeal for amour as the phlegmy old matchmaker Katya Ballzov).

Burlinson, who obviously took his inspiration for Katya from the Billy Crystal School of yenta-playing, wasn't the only performer to shine, however. On Wednesday, stand-out performances were also delivered by Danton Char as Sir Noble's hunchbacked minion Igor, Aaron Zelman as the musically ambitious heifer Bess, David Travis as the punk butcherette cum Gallic foot soldier Fifi and John Berman as the demented royal daughter Ivanna.

In many ways, though, the real stars of the show were Messrs Baskin and Cooper, who gave the 1995 troupe such wonderful lines to speak, including this bit of advice to a citizen of Undergrad: "A woman wants someone who will bring her flowers -- not rabies.'' As written by the authors, veterans of the 1993 theatrical "Romancing The Throne,'' the play is also a paean to popular culture, incorporating a cornucopia of filmic and literary allusions, from "Gone With The Wind'' and "Harvey'' to "Forrest Gump,'' "Star Wars'' and "Grease.'' My personal favourite was the "Charlie's Angels'' pose at the end of one first-act number, a reference that was so obscure as to actually be profound.

Indeed, the profundity of any Pudding production lies in that sheer sense of joy, of unabashed hilarity and rollicking good fun that the actors share with the audience.

Since the first of the theatricals was presented in a founding member's dormitory room in 1844, the productions have rarely aimed for a state of artistic sublimity, and who cares? As a prospective suitor says to Katya near the end of "A Tsar Is Born,'' "In this light -- and with a little fog -- you don't look so bad.'' On Wednesday night, the 147th production of the HPT looked to this reviewer to be very good indeed.

DANNY SINOPOLI MADCAP MENAGE -- Hilarity ensues as (from left to right) strange bedfellows Mr. Aaron Zelman (Bess Western), Mr. Steven Schardt (Dusty Yevsky) and Mr.

David Travis (Fifi Fifofum) camp it up in the 147th Hasty Pudding production "A Tsar Is Born''.