Having performed “Soda Pop” three times before, Tom Crew knows how funny it is.

But his castmates — newcomers to the script — weren’t so sure, he said.

“Soda Pop,” after all, is a lip-synced musical.

And while the “art” of lip-syncing can be entertaining, funny isn’t a word usually associated with it, unless somebody gets caught doing it when she shouldn’t be.

Like Ashlee Simpson on “Saturday Night Live.” That was funny.

Anyway, about halfway through the first read of “Soda Pop,” the cast started to get the humor, Crew said.

Then they saw a DVD of one of the shows Crew had performed in college. That did the trick.

“They got it,” he said. “They got that it’s about ‘How big can we make it?’ and ‘How silly can we be?’”

Indeed, cast member Randy Hawthorne, who plays one of the principal characters, said the show “is so over the top, it’s fun.”

“We’re still finding the humor as we continue to go forward,” he said. “It continues to change as we find all these little nuances to it.”

“Soda Pop” is being staged by Lincoln’s Crooked Codpiece Company in partnership with the Lincoln Community Playhouse. It closes the Playhouse’s Enersen Series, which features new and contemporary scripts.

Jim Hanna, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Lincoln Southeast High School graduate who works in Los Angeles as an actor, wrote “Soda Pop” when he was in college. He and his friends staged three productions of it in the late 1980s, including twice at Duffy’s Tavern.

Hanna has since tweaked his script. He has two versions, a family-friendly one that was staged in the spring of 2005 at his high school alma mater and the more risque PG-13 script Crooked Codpiece will perform.

“He naughtied it up a bit,” Crew said.

 Set in the 1950s, “Soda Pop” features a lovable group of teens lip-syncing their way through teen angst, teen angels and, of course, prom.

The story revolves around Bobby (Patrick Lambrecht), who loves Betty (Jessica Alexander) and Pops (Hawthorne), the soda jerk who keeps the gang happy with his frothy sodas.

The musical is told through song and dance and features such tunes as “Rock Around the Clock,” “Teen Angel,” “Chantilly Lace,” “Sh-Boom” and many more.

Crooked Codpiece founders Crew and Lambrecht are co-directing. Remaining cast members are Max Antoine, Robie Hayek, Lee Willet, Shelly Griess, Karen Freidmund Wills and Sarah Murtagh.

Crew said revisiting “Soda Pop” has been on Crooked Codpiece’s radar for a while. The company just needed to make sure the timing, venue and casting were all in sync (pun intended).

“It’s really a stupid kind of humor, but it’s funny,” said Crew, comparing the laughs to those in Will Farrell’s “Anchorman.” “The weirdest things happen that should make no sense, but they do in our show.”

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.