Best Picture is fun, but the fun starts to flag before the lights go down.

Writer Kurt Fitzpatrick sets himself the task of making comic references to all 89 of the Oscars’ best-picture winners. Some of the conventions are great.

As audience members arrive, performer Jon Paterson greets them as if they were celebrity look­alikes: “Liza Minnelli! George Clooney! Two of the Golden Girls!” And Tara Travis interviews “nominees” about their red-carpet fashions: “What inspired tonight’s look?” “I like to stay warm.”

In the body of the show, pleasure springs more from the delivery than the writing; Travis is particularly adept at playing with tone and rhythm. Generally, the production is slick and buoyant. After a while, though, Best Picture is just about getting through all of the titles.