Oakie Pokie is a small city on the brink of ecological ruin. It’s slowly sinking into the surrounding marshland, its buildings are falling apart - and worse still, its inhabitants are in serious danger of becoming the resident alligators’ next blue-plate special.

Located in backwater Florida - for where else would such a crisis occur? - the fictional town provides the setting for "The Karaoke Kid," an original play written and directed by Caitlin Marshall ’05 and presented in the Production Workshop’s downstairs space. The show transports the audience to its swampy dystopia by way of innovative set and lighting design, an imaginative story and robust performances, with just a few setbacks along the way.

"Karaoke Kid" ends its run with an 8 p.m. performance this evening.

Marshall’s satire charts the fate of Poplar Duvet (Allison Posner ’05), Oakie Pokie’s deadbeat karaoke queen. As is often the sad case with aspiring lounge singers, Poplar dreams of stardom, belting Celine Dion power ballads on cue and annoying everyone in earshot. Perhaps most irked is her English surrogate mother and landlady Cynthia Applebaum (Michelle Oing ’07), the mayor’s dissatisfied mistress and the neighborhood sour apple. Understandably, Applebaum can’t handle the recurring musical melodrama upstairs - or figure out why her tenant keeps talking to a Rod Stewart sock puppet (Weldon Ledbetter ’06).

Like the fog ominously hovering over the city limits, the plot thickens: When Bill Green (Jon Neidich ’05), the self-described "CEO of a major entertainment company," offers corrupt Mayor Chuck Lott (Michael Obremski ’07) a lucrative chance to film the town for his next reality TV show, things start looking up for everyone.

With a reluctant Poplar in mind, Mayor Lott’s eyes flash dollar signs as he loops a media circus around the "huge cash prize" in store for whoever wins Green’s televised karaoke contest. Adding to the frenzy, Poplar’s witch-doctor lover, Charell Barbosa (Andrea Gompf ’08), finds herself growing increasingly frustrated while her partner gets swept away by the sudden attention.

Marshall has flavored the absurdity of her tale with dialogue that displays both a sharp linguistic prowess and a knack for intriguing characters. The script is funny but dense and full of rhyming couplets and neat attempts at rap and poetry, a real challenge for even the most experienced actor.

Fortunately, the cast of "Karaoke Kid" is full of experienced actors. As Poplar, Posner evokes Alyson Hannigan by way of sheer earnestness and lighthearted naiveté. Oing’s Applebaum is a good attempt at a British sex kitten, if such a thing exists, and she laces her lasciviousness with the tragedy her role deserves. Obremski brings swift comic timing to his portrayal of Oakie Pokie’s mayor, reaching new heights of sleaziness and mimicking the drawl of - it was bound to happen - George W. Bush.

Ledbetter, the puppeteer and voice behind Rod Stewart, succeeds at alienating and weirding out the audience. While the play’s one-dimensional personalities call primarily for one-sided performances, this actress stomps through her role with Stewart’s trademark hoarse, indefatigable libido.

Ultimately, the play is a mixed bag. It feels a bit slow in certain scenes, particularly those shared by the lesbian lovers, and dialogue is occasionally clunky and heavy-handed, but these flaws are ironed out by the show’s inventive set. Spectators are treated to a festival of water and dry ice, with actors stumbling in galoshes through a real moat and burbling through fake fog. If the second act feels long to theatergoers, it probably is, but there are always a host of stage effects to hold their attention - and the unsettling vibrato of bad karaoke to keep them awake.