THROUGH NOVEMBER 28

This mostly amusing Marx Brothers romp has been compiled and adapted by Richard Rohan from the pun-studded “Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel” routines that Groucho and a raft of sketch writers created for broadcast in the days of “live” radio. Mostly verbal, they don’t require much in the way of staging. Which is not to say that director Joe Banno hasn’t dressed them up with sight gags and choreography in the cramped, newly fabric-swathed, black-box living room occupied by Theater J. The sketches are brightly performed by an able troupe of mimics, of whom Rohan’s leering Groucho, Gary Telles’ surprisingly winsome Chico and Meredith Patterson’s oh-so-serious Margaret Dumont are the funniest. It would be nice to say that the evening is an unalloyed joy, but the jokes wear thin after a while, even though the show clocks in at a brisk 70 minutes. Saturdays at 7 & 9:30 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. at Theater J, 1836 Jefferson Pl. NW. $10-15. (202) 833-9665. (Bob Mondello)