Since it's an election year, theatergoers are bound to be seeing numerous political comedies and satires crop up on a regular basis. Hopefully, most of them will be more successful than writer/director Norman Beim's A Marriage of Convenience, currently at the Turtle's Shell Theater. While the show has the admirable aim of skewering notions of sex, sexuality, marriage, and political bedfellows, the plodding pacing and thinly written characters blunt the work's effectiveness.

Gary Vincent (Todd Reichart) is a successful author who plans to run for the Senate. He's also gay. Advised by his friend and campaign manager Miles McKenzie (Richard Brundage) that he needs a wife to secure the support[...]