Charlie Peters' dark, biting comedy, Playback, receives its world premiere Jan. 24 at the Court Theatre in West Hollywood, CA.

Playback features a popular professor who has a lot on his plate: He is running for deanship of his college, his messy divorce continues, along with his affair with an ambitious female grad student, he is defending an arrogant student artist whose mural has disrupted campus peace, and, to top it off, a video version of his alter-ego pops in for an extended visit-- creating a mid-life crisis gone haywire.

A workshop version of Playback was conducted this past summer at Carnegie-Mellon University. Peters received an M.F.A. from the school in 1977, spent a few years in New York producing his plays at several Off Broadway venues, and then moved to Los Angeles, where he wrote several films, including Paternity, Blame it on Rio, Passed Away and the upcoming Kippendorf Tribe starring Richard Dreyfuss.

Playback stars Fred Sanders as the professor. He has been in TV shows such as "Seinfeld" and "Murphy Brown," as well as on Broadway in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, and Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons and Manhattan Punch Line.

Playback runs through Feb 23. Tickets are $20. For more information call (213) 660-TKTS, or refer to the Court Theatre regional listing on Playbill On-Line.