Who will win the Battle of the Batty? In Woolly Mammoth Theater's production of The Gigli Concert, each character is a contender.

In one corner we have the fidgety, self-absorbed and ultimately nutty J.P.W. King (Howard Shalwitz), practitioner of Dynamatology, a pseudoscience never fully explained, which comes off as a nonsensical marriage of philosophy and psychology. There's Mona (Kimberly Schraf), the sexually aggressive adulteress chatting with a young girl who doesn't appear to be there. And let's not forget the volatile Irish stranger (Mitchell Hébert) consumed with the desire to sing as well as Italian tenor Gigli.

The stranger wanders into King's office skeptically seeking his services after rejecting the treatment of an average shrink; the stranger's violent temper and inescapable depression is worrying those around him. King, whose roster of patients is essentially nonexistent, is all too eager to take on the challenge, though the effort becomes part vanity project and part couch session for the doctor himself. Their sessions at first, while frustrating in their meandering nature, are interrupted by moments of humor and character insight.

Unfortunately, when the second act arrives, the dialogue becomes almost painfully serious and self-important. The Gigli Concert, while clearly mocking the intellectually dubious, pretentious yammering of King, can't escape from at times being as trying as its main character. It can descend into cliché (the final plot twist
involving Mona, to whom King is a reluctant lover, is a particular offender), and also has an unfortunate tendency toward a false sense of climax and conclusion – twice you think the show has finished (and you're ready for that end), but there are still more scenes to go (though some of these, like King's final operatic moment in the eerily lit window Woolly has staged, are worthwhile).

Despite having to embody an almost intolerable character, Shalwitz is quite adept at making King convincingly eccentric, desperate and egotistical. Hébert's role requires more demonstrative displays, and he enacts these more histrionic moments with a sympathetic bravado; his second-act breakdown is particularly moving. Schraf, with her upfront sexuality and self-professed vulgarity, is only hindered by the saccharinely sad hand Mona eventually is dealt.

Woolly Mammoth's set is appropriately cluttered, a sprawling studio which gives King plenty of space to act out his bizarre tics, such as his corner-crouching phone conversations with an uninterested former lover. In The Gigli Concert, the production elements are there: the Battle of the Batty, however, isn't really worth fighting.

The Gigli Concert runs through May 7 at Woolly Mammoth Theatre. Tickets are available on the theater's web site.