THEATER REVIEW : Effort by Cold Tofu Dies on the Vine

Pssst . . . have you heard the latest?

Cold Tofu, the Asian-American improvisational group, is staging a full-length, scripted play at Los Angeles Theatre Center. It’s called “The Grapevine” and it’s by Soji Kashiwagi, whose fabulous actor father, Hiroshi Kashiwagi, has a role in it. And that good-looking kid, what’shisname? From “Karate Kid II”? Yuji Okumoto! He’s in it, too. So is Denice Kumagai--you know, the one from “Night Court.”

What’s it about? Cold Tofu’s promotional flyer says it all: “Blah, blah, blah, blah . . . blabber . . . blabber . . . blabber. . . .”

Right. It’s about gossip. How talking behind a person’s back damages reputations. Which “The Grapevine” might do to Cold Tofu. Why? ‘Cause this shockingly derivative, sophomoric exercise should have remained in the East West Players workshop where it began.

Don’t pass it on.

* “The Grapevine,” Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. Sunday matinees, 2 p.m. Ends July 11. $15-$18. (213) 739-4142. Running time: 2 hours.