Ken Ludwig's comedy "Moon Over Buffalo" certainly has some of the hallmarks of a farce, including a mistaken identity and characters darting and dashing in and out of multiple doors. During rehearsals for Groton Regional Theatre's production, though, director Vic Panciera began to view the play as more funny than farcical.

"He writes it very, very well, so it all makes sense. It isn't just silly, and his characters are very real," Panciera says.

Ludwig creates a series of storyline threads in "Moon Over Buffalo." Central to it all is a married couple, both actors, who lead a theater troupe in 1953. The husband has an affair with the troupe's ingenue, who becomes pregnant. All comic hell breaks loose.

"Moon Over Buffalo" premiered in 1995 and starred Carol Burnett in her first Broadway show in three decades. Burnett played the hoodwinked wife. Here, Amy Polek takes on that role, with Andy Plasse as Charlotte's wandering husband, George, and Corey Gonzales as George's young paramour.

(Ludwig's best-known comedy is "Lend Me a Tenor," and his plays tend to be popular with theater groups. Example: The Saybrook Stage Company is doing its own version of "Moon Over Buffalo" this week at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook.)

As a director, Panciera says, he blocked this show more heavily than he usually does.

"There is so much action, and we went through the blocking a few times in early rehearsals," he says. "Then we talked about characters and relationships."

More about those characters and relationships: At-odds spouses Charlotte and George hear that Frank Capra is going to see one of their performances — and just might cast them in his upcoming "Scarlet Pimpernel" remake. The possibility of movie stardom naturally proves exciting.

Things go awry when Charlotte's hard-of-hearing mother (Kathy Wilts) mistakes her granddaughter's fiance (Kevin Ladd) for Capra. So Charlotte ends up thinking the same thing, and the kookiness ratchets up.

The Friday performances of "Moon Over Buffalo," by the way, are dinner-theater presentations, with reservations required. The dinners include: chicken cordon bleu on July 17, lasagna on July 24, and seafood stuffed sole or baked tilapia on July 31.

"Moon Over Buffalo" is part of a comedy-centric season for GRT, with Christopher Durang's "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" earlier this season and "The Rocky Horror Show" to be staged around Halloween, complete with a midnight show on Halloween itself.

Next season's line-up, meanwhile, is scheduled to feature "Dixie Swim Club," which is about five women who were part of their college swim team and who go on meeting once a year; "One Slight Hitch," comedian Lewis Black's play about a bride for whom everything goes wrong; and the musical "Little Shop of Horrors."

"Moon Over Buffalo," Groton Senior Center, Route 117, Groton; opens Friday and runs through Aug. 2; dinner shows at 6 p.m. July 14, 24 and 31, with tickets $22 and reservations required by the Tuesday before the performance; non-dinner shows are 8 p.m. Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun.; tickets $15 ($12 for seniors); grotontheatre.org.