‘Lost in Yonkers’ finds the humor in family life

‘Tis the time of year – right between Thanksgiving and the December holidays – to remember one of the most resounding lines in Neil Simon’s play “Lost in Yonkers.” Uncle Louie, a 1940s gangster who makes an unexpected visit to his mother’s home in Yonkers, turns to his two young nephews and says: “There’s nothing like family.”

Simon cashed in on that truism in a big way with “Lost in Yonkers,” which the Orono Community Theatre will open tonight and present through Sunday at the Keith Anderson Community House in Orono. The 1991 script won both the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award, undoubtedly because it taps fearlessly into the issues of family history, dysfunction and healing, but also succeeds at underscoring the humor of life under one roof.

The roof inspected in this play belongs to Grandma Kurnitz, a embittered Jewish woman with a heart and head of steel. When her widower son Eddie asks if his two teen boys can stay with her in Yonkers while he hits the road in search of wartime employment, she scowls dismissively. The boys aren’t all that happy with the prospect, either.

It’s Eddie’s sister Bella, a childlike woman with a heart of gold, who insists the children stay with the family for a year. From there Simon proves that there really isn’t anything else in the world like a family – thank goodness.

“Lost in Yonkers” is not the laugh-track comedy some associate with Simon. It’s funny all right, and Simon may tie up the story in typically predictable ways, but this is a show that has the power to pull your heartstrings right back to your own childhood.

Such moments are the ones that meet with the most success in the Orono Community Theatre production, which was in final rehearsals Thursday. Director Sandra Cyrus Lewey brings together a local, hard-working cast that has all the foibles, wobbles and quirks of a community theater troupe, but also delivers surprisingly emotional scenes with grace and punch.

The high-fidelity scenes are indebted to Laurie Beal as Bella. Beal has the charm and chutzpah for this piece, and when she’s on the stage, it’s lit from within. Gail Kniffen as the stern Grandma will scare the socks off of you (and then blame you for getting the flu), and Mark Bilyk as Uncle Louie shows off his moxie. But the show is at its liveliest when Beal is working her magic.

Sam Hallman (Beal’s real-life son) and Adam Davis sweetly and sympathetically play the brothers who are abandoned to the vagaries of this crazy family, and Ed Rice gives a good whine as their father, Eddie. Margo Lukens makes brief, entertaining and extremely well-dressed appearances as odd Aunt Gert.

The Orono Community Theatre will present “Lost in Yonkers” at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, and at 3 p.m. Dec. 2 at the Keith Anderson Community House on Bennoch Road in Orono. For tickets, call 866-5065.