MONMOUTH — Hilarious on-stage antics in “Room Service,” the Theater at Monmouth’s new production of an old show, are pushing the boundaries of funny, fast and furious.

This play by John Murray and Allen Boretz has been around for more than 70 years, but it continues to delight audiences. It ran for 500 performances on Broadway in 1937 when the nation was emerging from the Great Depression. The next year, the Marx Brothers starred in a film version, and there was a 1943 musical version with Frank Sinatra. In 1953 a Broadway revival of “Room Service” featured a newcomer named Jack Lemmon.

All the riotous action takes place in Gordon Miller’s room at the White Way Hotel in New York City. Miller (played by Jared Michael Delaney in his first season with the repertory company) is a conniving producer who has no money to keep his 20-plus cast and crew members housed and fed at the hotel.

His luck has run out as the play begins. The hotel’s top executive is throwing them out. Room service has been cut off and Miller is making preparations to “skip,” with the help of his director and his general assistant, who dutifully don several layers of suit coats, pants, shirts and ties because they can’t walk out with their luggage.

The plot is predictable, but who cares, as opportunities for financial backing appear and dissolve and the show people deftly dodge one eviction attempt after another. It all happens with precise comic timing that makes “Room Service” a delight from beginning to end.

Dustin Tucker, an eight-year veteran of the TAM repertory company, gives an uproarious rubber-faced performance as hotel manager Joseph Gribbon, who is also Miller’s brother-in-law. Gribbon’s perplexity mounts as Miller drags him deeper and deeper into the conspiracy.

Dennis A. Price, 12 seasons with TAM, plays Fakar Englund, Miller’s general assistant. Price steals scene after scene with some side-splitting weeping and blubbering to divert the eviction attempts. His size belies the speed and height he gets as he races and leaps around the set.

Paul Joseph Bernardo (first TAM season) portrays Harry Binion, Miller’s director, who, with past experience on his side, lends plenty of devious contributions to avoid landing out on the street.

Leo Davis (played by David Marcotte, first season at TAM) is the unsophisticated writer of the proposed play. He arrives from Oswego, N.Y., and finds himself a part of the penniless, but determined theatrical troupe. By faking illness and suicide by iodine, he cons the hotel doctor (played by Brian Bell, second TAM season).

Bill Van Horn, 10-year TAM veteran, is excellent in the role of Gregory Wagner, the bombastic hotel executive, and Mark S. Cartier, 15 years with TAM, has a plum role as Sasha Smirnoff, a Russian waiter who wants to act in America.

Kristin Parker, in her first TAM season, delivers a very pleasing performance as Hilda Manney, Gribble’s secretary who falls for Davis.

Ambien Mitchell (first season) does very well as Christine, Miller’s girlfriend, and Marie Eife (first season) is fine in a small role as a head-turning maid. Other memorable characters are played by Ryan Simpson as a bill collector, Frank Omar as a backer, and Uriel Menson as Senator Blake, the hotel’s owner. David Menich, who is assistant director, appears as a bank messenger.

In his program notes, director David Greenham said, “The roots of American television comedy can be found in plays like “Room Service.” Some of that style must have been absorbed in 1938 by Lucille Ball, who played Christine in the Marx Brothers’ film. Fans of TV’s “I Love Lucy” will recognize the frantic style seen in this version of “Room Service.”

It’s worth noting that anyone who leaves a seat in the three-act play’s two intermissions is missing a neat little show-within-a-show. The stage hands go through a seemingly-choreographed routine as beds are made, furniture is moved, cards for a poker game are dealt, and a moose head is hung on the wall.

Remaining performances of “Room Service” at Monmouth’s Cumston Hall are July 27 and Aug. 3, 6-7, 12, 16 and 20. For tickets call 933-9999 or go online to www.theateratmonmouth.org.