If Terrance McNally's play Lips Together, Teeth Apart were on film, video store staffers would be stumped to figure out whether to shelve it under 'Comedy' or Drama'.

At the increasingly reliable Palm Beach Dramaworks, which is currently presenting an assured, well-acted production of this fragile script, the one-liners, pop culture references and fragments of Broadway musicals are all entertaining enough, But what makes the play memorable is the sense of melancholy that hovers over the evening.

Director Nanique Gheridian stages the play with a minimum of action, yet the evening never feels static.

He (McNally) understands the importance of keeping an audience entertained and Palm Beach Dramaworks shows that it does too.