Characters get ensnared inside the ‘Bermuda Avenue Triangle’

Grab a spoon and a tub of sour cream.

This is one big bowl of borscht.

"It's borscht belt humor, which even if you're not borscht -- i.e., Jewish -- we can all appreciate," says Mary O'Brien, director of "Bermuda Avenue Triangle," opening tonight at Las Vegas Little Theatre. "It's kind of my forte. I'm an old broad, and it's about a couple of old broads."

Penned by the hubby/wife team of actor/writers Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor ("Lovers and Other Strangers"), this shtick-soaked throwback centers around two widows, one Jewish (think: mink stole and kvetching), one Irish-Catholic (think: plastic Jesus statue and self-styled martrydom), who are shuttled off to a Las Vegas retirement community by their daughters. (Yes, "Bermuda Avenue" alludes to our own Bermuda Bay Street.) There, they are, shall we say, sexually refreshed by a mysterious lothario.

"They're in a place in their lives where they never thought they would be," O'Brien says. "Everybody counts you out when you're over a certain age, that you can't have naughty times or fantasize."

In New York in 1997, Bologna, Taylor and co-star Nanette Fabray staged the sitcom-style stew of ethnic quips and quirks. (Think: "It's so hot outside the rattlesnakes are shvitzing" -- and for those befuddled by Jewish colloquialisms, "shvitzing" is Yiddish for "sweating.") Critical reaction ranged from indifferent to inoffensive to incredulous:

The New York Times: "A ghastly new comedy." Variety: "A gentle laxative of a play" and "harmless geriatric sex comedy" with "hoary jokes and pregnant pauses as predictable and overdone as your grandmother's pot roast." CurtainUp Internet magazine: "A camped-up, over-the-top comedy."

Why close out the Little Theatre's mainstage season with such an apparent trifle? "Reviews were actually good if you get into the ones in places like Cincinnati and in community theaters," O'Brien says. "But when you get into the ones that actually had Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna, they did get slammed, didn't they?"

How much do reviews figure into the play selection process? Sorry, critics ... not much.

"We don't look at reviews while looking at a play, just because it is somewhat subjective," says theater president Walter Niejadlik. "It's set in Las Vegas, and we thought this was funny, the committee that read it. We sometimes find that what doesn't work out elsewhere works out in Vegas, and vice versa."

Niejadlik points out that the theater group schedules edgier fare, such as plays by provocateurs Neil LaBute and Christopher Durang, in its cozier Black Box Theatre to draw younger theatergoers to supplement the older season subscribers. Though the latter are given grittier works as well, selections such as "Bermuda Avenue Triangle" are a nod to loyal patrons.

"We definitely thought this would appeal to our subscription base," he says. "It seemed like a good fit agewise and backgroundwise, especially as the last show when we're trying to sell those (next season) subscriptions."

On that comedic and demographic level, "Bermuda Avenue Triangle" provides its target audience with what O'Brien calls "pure, escapist fun. Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor go for the laughs. You don't need an interpreter to understand what this play is about."

So spoon out a big, sloppy scoop of sour cream.

Borscht is served.

Contact reporter Steve Bornfeld at sbornfeld@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0256.