THEATER REVIEWS : Chestnuts Suitable for Roasting Musically : Witty ‘Christmas With Sal & Amanda Gecko’ Spoofs a Lounge Lizard’s Holiday Dream Come True

MISSION VIEJO — “Christmas With Sal & Amanda Gecko” at Saddleback College’s Studio Theatre is a boisterous evening of musical holiday wishes from oily Sal and his zaftig , breathless wife, who welcome us into their knickknack-festooned, Kmart chic parlor and proceed to slaughter one pop Yule tune after another.

Slaughter? Not really. What the Geckos actually do is twist these songs and twirl them into charming and funny copies of how they sound when done by the lounge lizards that this show is spoofing.

Look up “gecko” in your Funk & Wagnalls, drop the ampersand from “Sal & Amanda” and you’ll have a good idea of the tone of this affair. The couple is actually Beth Hansen and George Quick, who have been doing this long enough to have it down pat. They know where their laughs are, and they know that playing it seriously is where the humor lies.

Sure, this sendup is basically one-joke, but Quick and Hansen slip in enough comedic stocking stuffers to make it work. Amanda cavorts about in fuzz-trimmed, filmy lounge pajamas, her face all but hidden by a platinum wig that makes Dolly Parton’s hair look crew-cut. Sal also has a wig--Elvis right down to the five-inch mutton chops.

That’s the obvious humor. Perhaps less obvious, but definitely key to the proceedings, is Quick and Hansen’s mastery of vocal styles, a compilation of every lounge singer’s tricks from Amanda’s hazardous sliding notes and twittering vibrato to Sal’s bumptious basso scoops, grimace-enhanced headtones and more.

*

They are accompanied on piano and drums by “the Feinsteins,” who are celebrating a coincidental holiday season with their white satin yarmulkes . The between-song dialogue, by Alison E. Wood, is just as obnoxiously waggish as it is supposed to be.

* “Christmas With Sal & Amanda Gecko,” Saddleback College Studio Theatre, 28000 Marguerite Parkway, Mission Viejo. Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m. Ends Sunday. $10-$12. (714) 582-4656. Running time: 1 hours, 15 minutes.

George Quick: Sal Gecko

Beth Hansen: Amanda Gecko

An Actors Cabaret Ensemble and Saddleback Angels production of the cabaret by George Quick and Beth Hansen. Directed by George Quick. Lighting design: Nancy Staiger. Choreography: Trixie Hunter. Props: Topaz La Vista. Costumes: Delores of Huntington Beach. Makeup: Princess Borghese. Stage manager: Nancy Staiger.