"The Body Politic" is a lighthearted romantic comedy about two ambitious young professionals who find they can beat the odds if they can just let go of their labels.

Oh, and it takes place in the backrooms of a presidential campaign. Sound sexy enough?

As sexy as the corporate, wooden table that was the stage's sole adornment and only as funny as your average rom-com, "The Body Politic" has nothing original with which to entice its audience. Any light-spirited comedy is quickly drowned out by the brief, yet still uncomfortable, debates over religion's place in a campaign and the morality of capital punishment and abortion.

The show begins with the small cast facing off in a backstage press room. We are introduced to two presidential candidates and four campaign staff members. It becomes quickly apparent that the youngest members of the respective sides are going to become tangled up in more than the issues of this race.

After platform speeches and a view into the inner workings of this fictional campaign, the young advisors are pushed together for "the good of the country." Each is expected to gather dirt against the other side, but this unlikely relationship has both members wondering if they could ever see past the party lines and to what extremes this race will push them.

Leslie Hendrix's comment as the icy Brunhilda Logan that "mixed politics make for strange bedfellows" has never rang truer when considering the mixed effect to which this show tries to mix politics and comedy. There are few moments that will make you genuinely laugh, though a scene that finds the Democrats kneeling in prayer had the intimate theater bubbling with laughter. The show is at its funniest when the ensemble comes together in catty debate, but the scenes are so quick, these moments are easy to miss.

Michael Puzzo and Hendrix give the most credible performances as the jaded senior campaign workers; their brief scenes together keep the play grounded as they remind us that this romance is only useful to the parties as long as information is being exchanged.

Matthew Boston is as sweet as a young Republican in love can be, but is met with a performance so solid it borders on wooden from his Democratic counterpart, Eve Danzeisen. Overall, "The Body Politic" probably wouldn't stand up in the polls.

"The Body Politic" runs until March 6^th at 59E59, the Off-Broadway Theater Complex located on East 59^th St. between Madison and Park Avenues.