‘Bermuda Avenue Triangle’ worse than it needs to be

You don't really need to hear the jokes in Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna's "Bermuda Avenue Triangle." You've heard most of them before.

Two unhappy elderly widows (played by Marilyn Atkins and Lisa Illia) move into a Las Vegas retirement condo. One of the widows is Jewish, one Italian. (She's Irish in the original script, but what's the difference?)

They spend much of the time acting the way you'd expect cute little ethnic old ladies to behave. The yenta, for example, is into guilt and chicken soup. (Are you rolling in the aisles yet?) Enter an elderly gigolo (John Ivanoff) and you have two ladies regaining their zest for life.

The only surprising thing about the play is that it opened in New York in 1997. It strikes me as a relic left over from Ellis Island.

I don't know how anyone could make this material work, but in Las Vegas Little Theatre's current production, director Mary O'Brien makes it more awful than it needs to be.

The casting is bizarre. Atkins, as the worry-wart Fannie, is the only one of the trio who's a senior citizen. Did it not occur to anyone that having a gigolo and a roommate who are much younger than Fannie destroys the essence of the situation?

It doesn't help that the cast members all seem to know how adorable their characters are. Any hope for genuine poignancy is lost by the performers' obsession for pouncing on punch lines.

Atkins, though, occasionally manages to suggest a woman who has found her second youth.

And Ron Lindblom's living room/kitchen set is appealing, while still living up to the widows' awful description of their surroundings. ("It looks like it was painted with Pepto Bismol!" one exclaims.)

But this show probably was doomed the moment it was selected. Surely there's a script or two out there better worth the hard work of production.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.