When Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers” opened back in 1991, all three of its leads — Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth and Kevin Spacey — won Tony Awards.
Now it’s the children’s hour.
In this new revival by TACT/The Actors Company, Matthew Gumley and Russell Posner steal the show as Jay and Arty, two young boys unceremoniously dumped at their grandmother’s Yonkers apartment in 1942 by their financially desperate, widowed father.
Though they’re just 15 and 14, respectively, they’re like a miniature Matthau and Lemmon, thanks to perfect coming timing and sardonic delivery.
Simon’s play, arguably his emotionally richest, won both the Tony and Pulitzer, but hasn’t had a major production here since. This intimate, off-Broadway staging differs from the original in several ways — and, if anything, packs even more of an emotional wallop.
Although the original stars were superb, no one could accuse their performances of being . . . subtle. Here, Finnerty Steeves is heartbreakingly vulnerable as Bella, the boys’ mentally challenged aunt, desperate to break free of her mother’s tight grip. Alec Beard brings a welcome down-to-earth quality to Louie, the shady uncle claiming to be a “freelance money manager” who totes a mysterious black satchel. And Cynthia Harris, best known for her comedic work (TV’s “Mad About You”), is quietly devastating as Grandma Kurnitz, the imperious, German-Jewish matriarch who declares, “I buried a husband and two children, and I didn’t cry . . . I didn’t have time.”
Under Jenn Thompson’s empathic direction, the play has been effectively streamlined by omitting the father’s voice-over letters to his sons between scene changes. It’s not much of a loss.
Between the intimate venue and the powerful but low-key performances, the play is even more moving that it was before. And thanks to Simon’s spot-on one-liners — impeccably delivered by this pair of precocious teenage vaudevillians — it’s also funnier than ever.