Richard Greenberg's "Take Me Out" hits for the cycle: It's smart and funny with tart substance and plenty of heart -- not just sweet sentiment but the complex real thing, which includes ache and wonder.

Still, smart and funny come first, and as one who loved the play when I saw the Tony-winning Broadway version several times in 2003 -- I can't believe it's that long ago, it's so vivid still -- I'm delighted it finally comes to Pittsburgh with such a good cast in an intimate setting, thanks to barebones productions and the Three Rivers Arts Fest. And the ticket price is a steal.

The chosen field of play is baseball, both as actual game and as pointed metaphor for behavior both public and private, now and forever. "Take Me Out" is about no less than democracy, race relations, sexual identity, celebrity, political correctness and the way sport, art and morals intersect.

It's as if you took our current national political drama, stirred in sports and a couple of good standup comics and handed it all to a really good writer to give it better shape and point. "Democracy is lovely," Greenberg writes, tongue only partly in cheek, "but baseball is more mature," and art is more mature than either.

The story is of a mixed-race superstar (Christian Felix) in a ritual- and myth-laden sport who one day announces he's gay. Suddenly, the casual, naked camaraderie of the locker room is charged with self-consciousness. Stupid attitudes emerge and identities are tested. To process it all, Greenberg provides two commentators, a brainy shortstop (Patrick Jordan) and a gay financial adviser (Tom Aulino), newly in love with America's game and maybe the superstar, too.

Specific conflict enters in the strange form of a redneck, flame-throwing relief pitcher (Tristan Farmer) and a conflicted black star on another team (Joshua Elijah Reese). Greenberg has lots of fun with the multi-ethnic supporting cast, led by the befuddled manager (Bingo O'Malley), the comically obtuse (Jeff Carpenter and Tony Bingham) and the linguistically challenged (J.J. Jackson, Jose Rivas and Jeffrey Omura).

David Whalen directs with a sure hand, and the technical side (functioning showers, suggestive sound) is capably handled. The frequent nudity is natural and, of course, also funny. To be entertained by this serious comedy, you don't have to care about baseball so much as about how men behave at work and play.

First Published: June 13, 2008, 4:00 a.m.