Tom Cruise is so vain; I'll bet he thinks this show is about him

I saw "Little Dog Laughed" yesterday, which is opening tonight at the Cort Theatre. So let's get this out of the way first: Yes, Johnny Galecki is briefly naked. Yes, it's fairly impressive. But yes, there are plenty of other reasons to see this show, and most of them involve Julie White.

The show centers around Mitchell (Tom Everett Scott), a rising star in Hollywood who also has an affinity for male hookers, and it's not just for the massages. He falls particularly hard for one of them, Alex (Galecki, best known as Darlene's boyfriend David from "Roseanne"), much to the dismay of his agent Diane (White) -- think Harriet Harris' character from "Frasier" without the heart. To further complicate matters, Alex's gold-digging friend Ellen (Ari Graynor) is looking to take their relationship to a more serious level.

OK, so a play about the corrupting effects of Hollywood on personal lives isn't exactly new ground. And nowadays, Perez Hilton would never let such a wink-wink relationship between Mitchell and Alex last. (Right Neil Patrick Harris? T.R. Knight? Lance Bass?)

The play's structure of monologues spaced within dialogue, however, keeps the somewhat trite story compelling, particularly when that monologue is one of Diane's frenetic cell phone conversations. White garnered applause nearly every time she left the stage, and deservedly so. The show would almost work if it were a series of monologues just by her, relegating the other characters as unseen presences, much like the other characters of the Hollywood drama, such as the gay playwright whose work Diane wants to see turned into a movie (sans that yucky homosexual romance, of course).

This is not to diminish the work of the other cast members, of course. Galecki -- yes, I had to mention him first after the word "member" -- is endearing, even if he is a bit old to be playing the 24-year-old prostitute with a heart of, well, sterling silver. Scott didn't quite seem the right type for his role to me. Graynor's character was the least developed by the playwright, but she was entertaining to watch nonetheless.

Overall, it's a fine production that, unfortunately, probably will have a limited run thanks to the subject matter and lack of a big name. The good news is that White already seems to be reaping the rewards. Let's just hope that eventually involves to projects that are more appropriate to her talent than "Transformers."