Hard Times, Again

   “Wry,†this comedy is sometimes called. Or “dark.†But there’s nothing funny about Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.â€

   Not because the actors in the Ghent Playhouse production can’t bring it off. They do the job, some of them admirably.

   Nor does the fault lie with director Flo Hayle. The moves and pacing are fine.

   It’s because there’s not much funny about a middle-aged man losing his job after 22 years with one company and then going nuts. Mel (Mark Schane-Lydon), probably an excitable fellow to start with, is driven to distraction and then depression while life around his 14th-floor apartment in Manhattan’s East side disintegrates. Hospital workers strike. Garbage piles up on the street. His neighbors are noisy. His air conditioner’s too cold.  His toilet runs. The police commissioner is kidnapped, for God’s sake. What else can go wrong?

   Edna (Roseann Cane), his wife, can get a job. That’s what can go wrong.

   This play was first produced on Broadway in 1971 and ran for nearly two years. Yes, the war in Vietnam had been horribly costly. Yes, the economy was shaky. And, yes, people were losing their jobs. But this play is more a reflection of Simon the misanthrope than it is of bad economic times and feckless governing then. Or bad economic times and feckless governing now.

   It’s about people behaving badly.

   Still, Schane-Lydon makes us like Mel, a remorseless kvetch, and Cane, the saintly Edna, falls apart with our blessing.

   The rest of Mel’s family, three sisters and a brother — ambivalent, vindictive and cravenous all — have some funny lines. But they are written as caricatures, not people. Which is what generally goes wrong with Simon’s plays. Most of them come off  glib, surfacey, offensive, leaving us not caring much about the people and making us care even less about the playwright. 

   These are good actors in a play for Neil Simon lovers. And there are certainly plenty of those. If you are one, you’ll like this fine production.

Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue†runs at the Ghent Playhouse through May 30. For tickets, call 518-392-6264 or go to www.ghentplayhouse.org.

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