The subject of the new comedy “Under My Skin” is very “now”: The sucky unfairness of health insurance.
But the show’s cornball style is stuck in the ’80s or ’90s — which isn’t surprising since it’s by Robert Sternin and Prudence Fraser, who wrote for “Who’s the Boss” and developed “The Nanny.”
The lovely Kerry Butler (“Catch Me If You Can”) is wasted as Melody Dent, a temp who ends up in the body of her horrible boss, Amalgamated Healthcare CEO Harrison Badish III (Matt Walton). As usual in those switcheroo cases, faulty wiring and a hapless angel (Dierdre Friel) are to blame.
Unsurprisingly, each character learns valuable life lessons from the other. Here they mostly have to do with sex and genitalia. Harrison undergoes a traumatic visit to the gynecologist — feet up!
Meanwhile, Melody realizes a man’s member has a mind of its own: “It is biological,” she exclaims. “I owe my high school boyfriend a big apology.”
You can’t even root for them to get together because Walton’s Harrison is so relentlessly unlikable — the sleazy antithesis of George Clooney.
Pity there’s no theater insurance against schlock.