Well the Missus and I trundled downtown yesterday to catch the Lyric Stage production of The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife by Charles Busch and, say, it was . . . meshugge.

From the website:

A middle-aged Upper-West-Side doctor’s wife is devoted to mornings at the Whitney, afternoons at MOMA, and evenings at BAM. Plunged into a mid-life crisis of Medea-like proportions, she’s shaken out of her lethargy by the reappearance of a fascinating and somewhat mysterious childhood friend. Filled with passion and humor, the New York Times called The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife a “window-rattling comedy of mid-life malaise.”

The production lives up to the Chaucerian echo in the play’s title: It’s broad, bawdy, and biting throughout.

Not entirely accurate YouTube trailer:

Full quote from the Boston Globe:

Charles Busch is not known for holding back, and he certainly heaves a lot at the wall in “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife.’’

Enough of it sticks to generate some raucous merriment in a production at Lyric Stage Company, but it’s not sufficient, ultimately, for this unwieldy comedy to succeed.

The Globe’s estimable theater critic Don Aucoin ultimately called the Lyric production “sporadically entertaining.” And there’s no question Marina Re, in the title role, chews so much scenery in the first act she needs to floss during intermission. But that’s sort of the point.

As one local wag noted, it’s a play only a New York Jew could really love. (Full disclosure: I grew up in Manhattan and I’m Jewish by attraction.)

Regardless, it’s running through December 20. Do a mitzvah and go see it.