David Ives' collection of sketches, All in the Timing, is clever, playful and romantic, as well as cheap to produce, which has made it a favorite of college and community theaters around the country.

The 1994 script gets good treatment by Modern Muse Theatre Company, but it's not at the level of production or content of previous Modern Muse work.

Directed by Stephen J. Lavezza and Gabriella Cavallero, the show features fine performances all around, if not quite the zing the piece requires.

Susan Scott and Jeremy Make open the evening with Sure Thing, which examines the many possible deal-killers on the way to a first date. A bell dings each time the man or woman says the wrong thing, allowing the scene to backtrack and get on course. Scott plays her role nicely distant and guarded until she unleashes all of her preconceptions about disastrous dates. Make is simple and honest, with a Tom Hanks easiness, explaining, "You have to hit these things at the right moment or it's no good."

But the timing is, in fact, off. Those dings don't so much punctuate the scene as dance through it, so the effect isn't one of a reset button.

In contrast, The Universal Language flows perfectly. Josh Hartwell plays Don, a teacher of an Esperanto-like language to Jennifer Anne Forsyth's Dawn, a young woman who wants to overcome her stutter. Hartwell, so often cast as an upright everyman, turns out an eccentric who speaks perfectly intelligible gibberish in which "Squeegee la meza" translates to "Excuse the mess" and "rasa la tabuli" means "empty your head." He and Forsyth, fresh and sincere, construct a funny, sweet scene that, like most in the show, slightly outlives its premise.

Other sketches include the classic Words, Words, Words, in which three monkeys are trapped in a lab trying to compose Hamlet - Missy Moore and Forsyth in particular show a gift for chimp movements combined with human personalities. Even better is The Philadelphia, in which Make is a breezy Hollywood slickster coaching his friend, Hartwell, on how to overcome the fog in which he's trapped.

Language and its impediments are at the heart of All in the Timing, and Brian Freeland picks out musical pieces, from light jazz to the Beastie Boys, to complement it. But Lavezza's set, made of partial walls covered in newsprint and scrawled words, feels more cheap than thoughtful. It's entertainment, but not the kind one might expect from a company of this caliber.

All in the Timing

• Grade: B

• When and where: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays at the Bug Theatre, 3654 Navajo St.

• Cost: $20

• Information: 303-780-7836