‘Night’ of karaoke falls flat

In a word, yes.

“Girls Night: The Musical’’ is the most ridiculous display of bad taste seen in a long time. The story line, such as it is, follows a quartet of women in their 30s and 40s who use a daughter’s engagement party as an opportunity to get sloppy drunk at a karaoke bar.

But wait, there’s more.

The evening’s series of embarrassing moments is narrated by the quartet’s dead friend and the mother of the bride, Sharon (Wilma Cespedes-Rivera), who lost her life 22 years earlier in a moped accident. Sharon ploddingly describes her stereotypical friends - frustrated Carol (Kerrin Clark), bitter Liza (Berty Jay), repressed Kate (Chelsea Minton), and crazy Anita (Lara Simpson, who even waves a prescription bottle) - and is remarkably catty for an angel. It’s difficult to imagine what these friendships are built on since they seem to have slept with each other’s boyfriends and trash talk each other at the slightest provocation.

OK, true confessions. I am a girl. I like to go out with my girlfriends, and we may, on occasion, get a little silly, but writer Betsy Kelso, who adapted the original British version of “Girls Night,’’ has written chatter that is so condescending, for characters that are such cardboard cutouts, it’s almost painful too painful to endure. There are lots of vulgar jokes about vibrators, body hair, thongs, and the appearance of an anatomically correct blow-up doll that is worked into an unpleasant production number. These unfunny sketches are supposed to segue into the karaoke performances, but the disco-era diva songs, including “Lady Marmalade,’’ “I Will Survive,’’ and “We Are Family’’ feel like they were selected at random. “It’s Raining Men’’ and “I Am What I Am’’ (from “La Cage aux Folles’’) are completely out of place.

Director Sonya Carter has the impossible task of pulling the disparate scenes together with the music. She gives up early though, and we’re forced to watch the four women troop off stage one by one, add a costume piece to suggest a different time and place, and troop back on. Unfortunately, the annoying angel never leaves.

There is a possibility the performers in “Girls Night’’ have some singing talent, but since the gimmick involves a karaoke bar, they are forced to shriek over the surprisingly bland recorded tracks, which doesn’t leave much room for nuance. Simpson does manage a respectable “The Love of My Man’’ that Etta James wouldn’t mind, but she’s about the only standout.

Although the premise of the show is an engagement party, the bride-to-be never shows up. Smart girl.