STAGE REVIEW : NEW CAST CONNECTS WITH ‘LITTLE SHEBA’ AT LATC

Tyne Daly and Charles Hallahan had to leave the last week of “Come Back, Little Sheba” at the Los Angeles Theatre Center for industry jobs. But Lola and Doc are still there.

Zoaunne LeRoy and Al Rossi follow the general lines established by their predecessors. Lola still is a snappy dancer for someone so broad in the beam. Doc is still a prim, conventional man who never knew what hit him.

But these aren’t surrogate performances. Each actor connects personally with the role and gives us something new to think about.

In Doc’s big drunk scene, for example, Rossi makes us feel that Doc himself is shocked at the way he’s behaving. It’s all Lola’s fault, of course. The self-pity is excellent.

LeRoy makes us feel that Lola’s deepest need is to give herself to people, and that she does have something to give. But nobody seems to want her. The scene on the phone with her mother--”Tell Daddy hello”--says it all. It’s a game, loving performance.

The Delaneys’ star boarder, Marie, is also new. Actress Laura Harrington gives this little number more credit for sincerity than she deserves. Turk, Marie’s interim boyfriend, is still being played by Michael McGrady and he’s still perfect. Sonny Tufts, watch out. Bradley White is good, too, as Marie’s steady, Bruce, who will never chase anyone around a kitchen with an ax.

The play is still treated as a collectible from the 1950s, rather than a story that can draw blood today. Even so, I heard some sniffles the other night after Lola put down the phone. “Sheba” closes Sunday at LATC, 514 S. Spring St.; (213) 627-5599.