Christopher Walken stars in a new dark comedy from a writer who's made quite a name for himself with dark comedies. NY1’s Roma Torre filed the following review on "A Behanding in Spokane," the latest work from playwright Martin McDonagh.

If “Saturday Night Live” allowed foul language, and Christopher Walken happened to be the guest host one week, I could easily imagine the writers brainstorming the idea for a send-up of a Martin McDonagh play. They'd call it "A Behanding in Spokane" and it would feature McDonagh's signature elements: violence, body parts, and ghoulish humor. Of course "Behanding..." is actually McDonagh's latest work to open on Broadway.

And while I can't exactly say it's a bad play, it's just not a play at all.

It's a vehicle more than anything else for Christopher Walken's trademark brand of creepy whack jobs, and boy does he deliver. He is the entire reason to see this piece. Without him, the whole thing would be junked on the side of the road.

Fans of McDonagh, me included, relish his gift for creating an alternate universe in his plays where oddball characters say and do the most outrageous things and somehow it all makes sense. “Pillowman,” “Lt. of Inishmore,” “Beauty Queen of Leenane,” all these works transport us, kicking and screaming in some cases, to the most disturbing worlds where humor is ingeniously married to horror.

Not so this time around. “Behanding” has no dramatic consistency. Oh, it's outrageous alright and there are some hysterically funny lines. But nothing makes sense and it honestly comes off as a self-parody.

I won't spoil the plot line but it's full of holes and McDonagh relies far too much on profanity-laced politically incorrect dialogue to get his laughs.

Playing a pair of scam artists, Zoe Kazan and Anthony Mackie try awfully hard to take up the slack when Walken leaves the stage, but it's futile.

Sam Rockwell as a moronic hotel worker is a little more successful, but he's saddled with zero motivation and such ridiculous lines, you can't help but tune him out.

But it's all Walken's show, with a performance that gets laughs even when he does nothing. As a menacing mama's boy in search of his missing hand, his quirky line readings, weird accents and killer timing render us helplessly hooked.

But even with Walken's star turn, “A Behanding in Spokane” doesn't amount to more than sketch comedy. And if you happen to pay the full price for a ticket to this lopsided show, then I'd have to say the joke's on you.