Playwright Lee Cataluna and director Kevin Doyle don't just dust off "Da Mayah" for its revival at Kumu Kahua Theatre. They tidy up, rearrange and add several new accent pieces, making it ready to show for a new audience.

When the play premiered in 1998, it was Cataluna's first script. She brought a fresh comic voice to the Island theater scene with her ability to puncture stereotypes and successfully tread the line between outrageous and tasteless. Doyle's staging added plenty of physical comedy, visually fleshed out the characters and brought them to life.

Ten years later, the revival still feels fresh — probably because political foibles and the local sense of what's funny hasn't much changed. The broad comedy is still strong and there's a new emphasis on karaoke songs, which add texture to a concept where character is more important than plot.

"Da Mayah" exists within its own sphere of reality, allowing the audience delightful glimpses through its transparent walls. It doesn't move forward as much as it turns on itself, satisfied and complete within its comforting comic bubble.

If a performance could qualify as comfort food, it would be that of Eddy Gudoy, who repeats his role as Lester Perez ("Do What He Sez!"), the first elected mayor of Hilo. Perez is as inept at holding office as he is being a bully or a low-level crook, but Gudoy makes him sweet, soft and warm as fresh malasadas. His disco dance is a character highlight and makes us wish he retained more focus in the play.

Anna-Marie Love plays Sandralene, the mayor's administrative assistant and long-suffering power behind the throne. She's less of a bubblehead in this production, and while the character has no clear personal agenda, she gains stature each time Love picks up the microphone to sing. With her professional-quality voice, Love's vocals lift Sandralene out of her character muddle and imply that anyone who can sing this well has a bright future.

Troy Apostol plays Stanton ("Da Manton"), an inept hit man with a heart. The character also seems to have grown into stronger footing as a match for Sandralene, promoting Stanton from a supporting part to that of a featured role. The innocence and naivete remain in the character, but it has also lost some of its disarming freshness.

Karen Hironaga is so charming as Jazzmin, proprietor of the local washerette and karaoke lounge, that we wish her character was more integral to the action. Jarod Bailon hulks about as a vaguely unsavory underworld figure, and Stu Hirayama (also from the original production) moves furniture and plays solo saxophone as "Big Al."

Two of the play's best characters never appear: Derrek Pang, a bulky outlaw with a "bust-up" face, whom Stanton is unable to knock off; and "Puka Head" Pacheco, who is the source of the show's best laugh.

"Why do you call him "Puka Head?"

"Because he has one puka in his head!"

"I just think of him as having an open mind."

The show retains plenty of its original craziness as an epidemic of food poisoning strikes from a plate-lunch special and Sandralene punches out a corpse at the wrong funeral. New musical emphasis dresses out the show, but at the cost of splitting focus between the karaoke screen and the live performers.

In all, the show is more fun — and considerably cheaper — than a trip to Hilo.