Every now and then, an actor comes along with the gift of getting the audience immediately in his pocket. The moment you see Steve Martin look-alike Peter Vitale in Las Vegas Little Theatre's "Jake's Women," you want to root for him.

That's lucky for the production, because Vitale's character, except for one brief exit to the bathroom, never leaves the stage. The play doesn't work if we don't like Jake, and Vitale has likability to spare. The skilled actor comes across as a sensitive "man's man" whom you'd enjoy having a beer with while discussing last night's basketball game.

Director Ken Feldman wisely makes sure that Vitale is not the whole show. Neil Simon's 1992 Broadway comedy gives us six women and one girl who are a part of both Jake's life and imagination. The New York writer's marriage is breaking up, and his mental wanderings are attempts to figure out what's gone wrong. If that sounds Ingmar Bergman-ish, rest assured Simon is still Simon, and the gags abound.

Feldman makes sure we believe these actors are who they say they are. You can feel the relationships, the personal histories. Lara Lanae Freeborn's Maggie interacts with Vitale's Jake with the sort of verbal intimacy that sounds like the way married people talk to one another. She's also able to suggest how the years of marriage have weighed her down. When we see her (though Jake's mind) at the beginning of the courtship, she has the energy and sensual appetite of a hopeful teenager. In the present, her body seems heavier, labored. It's a well-thought out, touching performance.

We also believe that Amy Harris Gardner is an overbearing but caring sister, and that Tressa Bern is a hard-edged, seen-it-all shrink. The cast seems to have come out of the same bottle of vision, and that's a credit to Feldman's controlling hand. (The one exception is Ellie Smith as a 12-year-old daughter, who doesn't come across as anywhere near 12.)

Ron Lindblom's living room set feels like a successful big-city writer's domain, and Shawn Hackler's competent lighting goes a long way in helping us separate reality from daydreams.

Simon detractors won't be pleased with the overabundance of generic, smart-alecky wisecracks that the author favors. Nor will they be happy with the characters' overexplaining their feelings. But this production is superbly consistent, funny and human. Vitale has been gone from the local stage for years. Please, someone, bring him back on a regular basis.

Christopher Lawrence's Life on the Couch column appears on Mondays. E-mail him at clawrence@reviewjournal.com.