2006-06-07-the bermuda avenue triangle

By Cynthia Citron

BRENTWOOD, Calif.—The Bermuda Avenue Triangle is not as good as it should be. First presented in Los Angeles a decade ago, it has been reworked and refurbished and is being presented at the plush new Brentwood Theater. It still stars its co-authors, the bubbling Renee Taylor and her husband of 40 years, the dapper Joe Bologna. And taking the Bea Arthur part is Lainie Kazan, who couldn’t be better. But it still comes off as a terribly silly play.

Kazan and Taylor play two long-time friends whose daughters have bought them a condo in Las Vegas. Which, of course, the mothers hate. Las Vegas is “filled with rattlesnakes and alta kachers (old farts), they complain. When they first appear onstage, silent and angry, they look like two of the witches from Macbeth. Dowdy, frumpy, fat and unhappy. Kazan plays the stereotypical Italian mother, Tess LaRuffa, and Taylor plays Fannie Saperstein, an upbeat kvetch. (“I was born old,” she says). Between them they bring a rueful comedic touch and many good laughs. Until Joe Bologna arrives on the scene.

Bologna is a consummate comedian and a more than competent actor, as he has proven so many times in the plays he has co-written and co-starred in with Taylor. Such as Lovers and Other Strangers, for which they won a writing Oscar. And Made for Each Other, It Had to be You, and If You Ever Leave Me, I’m Going With You. And while he does an adequate job in Bermuda Avenue Triangle as a serio-comic gigolo who seduces both women, the script itself is an unfunny, uncomfortable absurdity. How he manages to romance both women in the same apartment without either of them figuring it out is so farfetched and implausible as to diminish any potential comedy into total buffoonery.

Tricia Leigh Fisher and Rita McKenzie, playing the daughters, are fine, but Manny Kleinmuntz as a busybody rabbi is completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the comedy except a few farblondzhet Yiddishisms.

A word must be said for Lainie Kazan, however. In spite of the script she does a marvelous turn as a depressed woman who has been in a bad mood for an entire lifetime.

A word must also be said for Gail Cooper-Hecht’s costumes, which are hilarious and beyond tacky. In the second act, when the two frumpy cardigan-wearing widows blossom under the loving attention of Bologna, they suddenly appear in outfits that would have a Las Vegas showgirl tarred and feathered and run out of town. Terrific!

And Bologna, in his form-fitting suits, shows off his ultra-slim figure to good advantage. Outstanding for a man over 70! Or even a man over 50.

James Noone’s set design is pleasant, although it is not the “Pepto Bismol pink” that Kazan accuses it of.

The script, while sometimes pleasant, needs more work. There are uncomfortable gaps and moments where things turn decidedly maudlin. And I’m still not convinced that an improbable romance could turn two dreary women into the playgirls of the western world. Even in Las Vegas, the capital of fantasy and improbability.

Bermuda Avenue Triangle will continue at the theatre at 11301 Wilshire Blvd., on the Veterans Administration grounds in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, on a sporadic schedule through Sunday, June 25. Information is available at www.brentwoodtheatre.com.