TORONTO - Spinal Tap without the wigs, vegetable-enhanced spandex pants, and electric guitars?

Just how much fun could that be?

Actors-turned-musicians Michael McKean (David St. Hubbins), Christopher Guest (Nigel Tufnel) and Harry Shearer (Derek Smalls) brought their current Unwigged and Unplugged tour to Massey Hall on Thursday night and did their best to entertain a surprisingly small crowd given the cult following of their 1984 film, This Is Spinal Tap, in which they play fictional members of a British heavy metal band.

But without the characterizations, costumes and props, it was more like watching three middle-aged men in casual clothes play acoustic versions of songs that were much funnier in the over-the-top cinematic version.

As you might imagine the folk music of another fictional musical trio, The Folksmen, created by the three same men in the 2003 mockumentary, A Mighty Wind, was better suited to the evening's format with special shoutouts to Never Did No Wanderin', Loco Man, Blood On The Coal, and Old Joe's Place.

Still, the two-hour show definitely had its moments of hilarity given the assembled comedic (not to mention musical) talents aided by keyboardist C.J. Vanston, who is also the producer of the new Spinal Tap album, Back From The Dead, due next month.

The best bit of the night found McKean, Guest and Shearer reading from the actual NBC censor notes made by Bill Clotworthy (his real name) after an attempt was made to air This Is Spinal Tap at 11:30 p.m. on a Saturday night several decades ago.

Needless to say, the lascivious if hilarious lyrics to songs like Big Bottom, read aloud in amusing fashion by the trio, prevented this from ever happening.

Also good was an intentionally cheesy video showing the first-ever TV appearance by Spinal Tap in the 1978 ABC comedy special, The TV Show, during which they played poker and took part in some Busby Berkley type dance maneuvers, and a short film about a Danish cheese festival starring Ed Begley Jr., that was the actual trailer that played during the theatrical run of This Is Spinal Tap.

But the song that everyone seemed to be waiting for - Stone Henge - thankfully didn't disappoint with Guest doing his best Tufnel cockney accent during the song's spoken word intro and extro and the crowd finally getting out of their seats to cheer by the end of it. (Unlike the cinematic version which featured a pint-sized Stone Henge and little people dancing around it on stage, Thursday night's version ended with a filmed short showing a necklace-sized version of the British landmark while troll dolls danced around it.)

Even This Bulging River, the tune from the Guest-directed and co-written 1997 community theatre mockumentary, Waiting For Guffman, was a high point, along with a 3-D version of Spinal Tap's (Listen To The) Flower People which saw a member of the audience ordered to wear 3-D glasses while McKean and Shearer inched menacingly towards him, and a harmony-heavy, rollicking bluegrass version of The Rolling Stones' Start Me Up.

Kudos as well to Mckean, Guest and Shearer for performing Saucy Jack, from St. Hubbin's unsuccessful Jack The Ripper musical, a jazzy, stripped-down version of Big Bottom with the help of an interpretive female dancer, and great versions of Gimme Some Money and Heavy Duty.

Hopes were high too for the Spinal Tap classics Hell Hole, Bitch School and Clam Caravan (apparently a liner notes typo led to the song title that was originally supposed to be Calm Caravan) but more often than not these songs didn't reach the same heights as their plugged-in versions.

The trio, who took part in a brief question and answer session with the audience, could have also done a better job of editing their set list, getting rid of less effective tunes like All The Way Home (from the pre-Spinal Tap band, The New Originals), The Folksmen's Corn Wine, Spinal Tap's The majesty of Rock, Shearer's solo Elvis death tribute, All Backed Up, and The Good Book Song and A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow, both from A Mighty Wind and featuring McKean's wife-actress Annette O' Toole on guest vocals.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

SET LIST:

The Colors of My Life

Hell Hole

Never Did No Wanderin'

Clam Caravan

Bitch School

Loco Man

This Bulging River

All the Way Home

Blood on the Coal

(Listen to the) Flower People

Corn Wine

The Majesty of Rock

All Backed Up

Stonehenge

Start Me Up

Cups and Cakes

A Mighty Wind

Saucy Jack

Big Bottom

The Good Book Song

A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow

Rainy Day Sun

Sex Farm

ENCORE:

Gimme Some Money

Old Joe's Place

SECOND ENCORE:

The Colors of My Life (reprise)

Heavy Duty