STAGE REVIEWS : ‘ALONE TOGETHER’ WORKS LIKE AN AMUSING SITCOM

“Alone Together” at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse is an agreeable, amusing diversion that could have hopped from the television screen onto the stage without missing a beat. Lawrence Roman has written a funny, if familiar, commentary on tossing the baby birds out of the nest in order to teach them to fly--although here those birds are young adults and long overdue for a flying lesson.

The familiarity stems from Roman’s sitcom approach to the problem of adult children moving back in with their parents; that is, quips are often substituted for conversation and stereotypes for characters.

George and Helene Butler have just sent their youngest son off to college and are looking forward to some privacy and self-indulgence after 30 years of child-rearing, only to have their two older sons and a spacey female friend descend upon them.

There’s the brainy son, an ‘80s version of the absent-minded professor; the skirt-chasing son, a self-centered lothario complete with gold chains nestled in chest hair; the female flower child, a space cadet with a streak of sensibility that eludes the play’s more down-to-earth characters, and the mom and pop, helpless wimps when it comes to dealing with their crazy kids.

And in the traditional mold of television parents, these two will put up with just about anything before they draw the line and show who’s boss. (Of course, if they drew the line sooner, there wouldn’t be a story.)

It is left up to director Pati Tambellini’s cast to sidestep the stereotypes and make these characters real people, and several neat performances manage just that. Robert Engman is every inch the genial, ineffectual television pop who rallies in the 11th hour to resolve the family’s problems, but he gives his deft portrayal a nice edge of introspection. Myrna Niles as the mother is more forced but also more real, drawing on a mounting anger that feels genuine. (She’s a television mom in the Donna Reed mold, scurrying about the house in pearls, neat blouses and--a nod to the ‘80s--slacks.)

Deborah Babos shines in the role of the flower child who takes up residence in the Butler household on the off-hand invitation of the youngest son. Her heart-to-heart conversation with the mother provides some of the play’s best moments as Babos capitalizes on her little-girl voice and wide-eyed innocence to enrich the spacey stereotype. Craig Bentley Harrill makes the nerdy oldest son thoroughly (and amusingly) self-absorbed, but Thomas Lopez relies primarily on a broad smirk to bring the girl-crazy middle brother to life.

“Alone Together” will play through July 5 at the Costa Mesa Civic Playhouse, 661 Hamilton St. For information, call (714) 650-5269.