`TOMFOOLERY' A FRESH TAKE ON TIMELESS FUN.

Byline: Victoria Giraud Special to the Daily News

Comedy Night Productions has tried something unique this time out, and it works wonderfully. ``Tomfoolery'' is a hilarious musical revue, based on the songs and stories of Tom Lehrer. Even those who don't remember his timeless satirical songs from the 1950s and '60s will enjoy the irony of that adage that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Lehrer began his foray into the spotlight as a Harvard University math professor who enjoyed musical theater and observing politics and the human condition. He wrote and recorded many very funny songs and performed live all over the world. According to producer Gabriel Vega, Lehrer is alive and well at age 68. Although Lehrer is no longer writing songs, he is teaching math and musical theater at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

There's very little that Lehrer didn't touch upon musically - from racism and scouting to pollution and bomb testing - and ``Tomfoolery'' is filled with almost every one of his songs. He makes fun of sentimentality, nostalgia for the good ol' college days, folk music, small towns, romantic attraction, the South, masochism, bullfights, the commercialism of Christmas and the Ku Klux Klan - just to name a few. There's a song about German rocket scientist Werner von Braun - ``The rockets go up/who cares where they come down/that's not my department'' - and another about Oedipus Rex.

On the night I attended, many of the audience members had seen Lehrer in concert more than 30 years before. A woman sitting next to me had a special affection for Lehrer songs: One was sung at her wedding and another at anniversary parties. Both she and her husband had an excellent sense of humor, especially since their favorite song includes the lyrics: ``Say you love me here and now, you'll mistrust me when you're old and getting fat. In 20 years or so I'll wish you were dead. Please remember when I leave in December, I told you so in May.''

Zachary Spencer - the director, music director and pianist - assembled a fine, well-balanced and peppy cast for this fast-paced revue. The set is fairly simple with the cast changing costumes to fit a song's mood. The musically talented and entertaining cast includes Chris Field, Kristin Fredericks, Peggy Walsh, Marilyn Moss, Gabriel Vega, Holly Swenson, Ted Kuenz and Gary Saxer. Additional musical accompaniment was provided by accomplished percussionist Larry English.

From the opening production number satirizing the Boy Scouts motto ``be prepared,'' to a closing number, ``Vatican Rag,'' with priests and nuns dancing and singing, the revue was toe-tapping great fun.