BattleAwesome AwesomeStar

Sorry to be so late to the game about this unique theater event happening on Saturday in Toronto, but check this out:

Battlestar Galactica improv helps fill galactic gap

Bad Dog Theatre presents Battleawesome Awesomestar, an off-the-cuff goof on the genre favourite

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The first half of the final season of TV's sci-fi cult hit is now several months behind us, with the mystery-shrouded 10-episode conclusion still several months ahead. What the frak is the space-starved BSG fan expected to do till then?

You could head over to the Danforth Ave. comedy collective, a plucky little theatre company currently celebrating its fifth anniversary as "Toronto's improv hub," to help fill that galactic gap. Continuing tonight at 10 p.m. and the next two Saturdays after that, Bad Dog's in-house improv veterans present Battleawesome Awesomestar, an off-the-cuff goof on the sombrely portentous genre favourite.

A couple of decades ago, another local comedy troupe did much the same thing with Star Trek, in their case enacting scripts from TV episodes and movies. Before that, The Brady Bunch Live stage show became an unexpected hit in the U.S., inspiring the tongue-in-cheek film spoofs that followed.

Battleawesome takes the concept one step further with an entirely improvised performance, based on an initial audience-suggested "crisis" – at the opening show I caught last week, it was an egg shortage, driving the caricatured characters into a frenzy over, among other repercussions, an absence of omelettes at the breakfast buffet.

Another added improv innovation brings a pre-selected audience member up on stage as the evening's designated "Gaius Baltar," the show's most eccentric character, guided here, as on TV, by his imaginary friend in an evening gown, the sexy Cylon infiltrator Six...

WHO: Bad Dog Theatre

WHEN: Saturdays in October at 10 p.m.

WHERE: 138 Danforth Ave. (east of Broadview)

TICKETS: $10. For reservations: 416-491-3115 or baddogtheatre.com

Sounds HILARIOUS. Wish I could be there... This final show is sold out, but the producers tell me they plan to do more shows early in 2009. Meanwhile here are a couple of Facebook pages with more info.