Praise be to Mike Polk Jr.

As the big man himself, Cleveland comic helps carry Beck Center’s amusing ‘An Act of God’

God does indeed move in mysterious ways.

Take “An Act of God,” the play the Beck Center for the Arts in Lakewood selected as its 85th season opener.

In it, God takes human form to explain a new set of commandments that better reflect His original intentions, His coming to terms with “wrath-management issues,” and His liberal positions regarding fornication, child-rearing and the bearing of arms.

The play’s political leanings come as no surprise considering its creator is David Javerbaum, the 13time Emmy Award-winning former head writer and executive producer of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart.”

Nor is it a surprise that, like that show, “An Act of God” is sarcastic (“I’m not blessing you anymore, so stop asking. Tell your money to trust in someone else”), deceptively smart (Noah’s ark is casually referred to as “a phylogenetically complete nautical double bestiary”) and extremely funny.

But the play is little more than a 90-minute stand-up comedy routine, with an impish, self-critical God delivering a steady stream of direct-address one-liners accented by percussive rims-shots, some sacrilege (less than Trey Parker’s “Book of Mormon” but more than Anat Gov’s “Oh, God”) and a whiff of sober intent.

Good thing God is being played by local stand-up comedian Mike Polk Jr.

Polk’s affable personality and well-honed comic timing allow him and director William Rodebush to find an up-tempo rhythm and much-needed fluidity in a script without a dramatic arc and that borrows heavily from annoying TVgame-show tropes for its storytelling.

When the novelty of God’s revised rules wears off, the “Family Feud” theme wears thin and the aggravating realization that “An Act of God” is not a play, per se, sets in, it really comes down to Polk’s persona and delivery to keep the laughter coming. Which it does.

And his improvisational skills make quick work of the random mishaps that can occur during live performance on an opening night, foreshadowed in his playbill bio, which admits to “missing his teleprompter badly.”

Providing God with straight-faced setups for His explanations and occasional exasperations — which designers Benjamin Gantose (lighting) and Cartlon Guc’s (sound) augment with terrific fire-andbrimstone special effects — is the skeptical archangel Michael and the supportive archangel Gabriel, played with great charm by Allan Byrne and Brian Pedaci, respectively. Both were last seen at the Beck Center in a production of “Waiting for Godot,” which is an irony that playwright Javerbaum would have appreciated.

“An Act of God” takes place on the Beck Center’s mainstage because the intimate Studio Theater most certainly would have added to the comedy-club vibe the play cannot avoid.

Most of God’s diatribes take place on a white couch atop a flight of white stairs in front of a star-filled backdrop, devised by Aaron Benson. God’s white robe, selected by costumer Inda Blatch-Geib, looks as if were taken off the choir rack at Our Lady of Intelligent Design, which nicely taps the aforementioned sarcasm and smarts that drive this play.

God most certainly moves in mysterious ways. “An Act of God” is based on ultimate celebrity autobiography book “The Last Testament: A Memoir,” channeled by Javerbaum. It went on to a Broadway run in 2015, which was clearly an example of divine intervention.

ANDY DUDIK Allan Byrne, left, as Michael, Mike Polk Jr., as God, and Brian Pedaci, as Gabriel, perform in the Beck Center for the Arts production of “An Act of God.”