STAGE REVIEW : ‘Tony n’ Tina’ Brings Family Circus to L.A.

“Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” is a blast. There was perhaps some nervousness about bringing the show to L.A., in that Tony n’ Tina and their relatives are such New York types, and I mean the real New York--Queens.

But, hey, it’s those out-of-town weddings that can be the most fun. Somehow, for us shy people, it’s easier to get up and dance when you don’t know the people too well. At “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding,” of course, everybody quickly gets to be family. In fact, a bridesmaid invited me to a hot-tub party later. How often does that happen in Encino?

To be absolutely clear: We are discussing an environmental theater piece at the Park Plaza Hotel (the old Elks Club, off 6th Street in Los Angeles). We are not discussing real life. But the interest of the event is that it almost does become real life.

If “Tamara” is a living movie, with the spectator an invisible voyeur, “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” welcomes him to the feast and enables him to have adventures.

Only social adventures, it’s true. We are not talking about an Outward Bound weekend. But the spectator is encouraged to get involved in the fun, especially after Tony (Mark Nassar) and Tina (Nancy Cassaro) have actually tied the knot and we have all headed into the hotel for the reception.

Now’s the time to flirt with the bridesmaids, do high-fives with the ushers, chat with Father Mark and Uncle Luigi, and dance with the old ladies. And as the guest goes through these exercises, a great truth dawns. This is the secret of having fun at actual weddings, wakes, St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and Bar Mitzvahs. Jump in and make a fool of yourself. A bit of drama therapy, along with the baked zitti and champagne. (Both terrible.)

Shy persons needn’t panic, however. Nobody will muscle them to join in. This is not one of those shows that command you to have fun. One is perfectly free to sit and people-watch. In fact it’s a great show for that. There are as many stories going on here as in “Tamara,” and all in the same room.

Some of them get played out in full view. Tina’s family, the Nunzios, and Tony’s family, the Vitales, are not the types to keep their feelings all bottled up, and there’s a lot of resentment floating around the room. Why were the flowers so late, and where’s the prosciutto (the caterer, Vinnie Black comes into that--Kevin Alexander) and who invited Michael, for God’s sake?

Michael (Jack Fris) used to go with Tina, but is now a space-case. They can’t just throw him out, not unless he does something. Depend upon it, he does. “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” has a satisfactory number of disruptions, particularly as the hour grows late and the band gets hot. (Donny Dulce & Fusion--they’ll give you a card, in case you’re planning a function of your own.)

Tina and her mother (Susan Varon) also have words, and Tina and Tony go further than that. The commotion is highly visible, and amazingly spontaneous, considering that the company is fresh from a 400-performance run in New York. This is not a show that can be done on automatic pilot. It takes as much adrenalin as a real wedding, and one knows how taxing these can be, even for Episcopalians. This gang is not Episcopalian.

We are too aware of that in the wedding ceremony proper, which was over the top at the press preview I attended. Director Larry Pellegrini here allows the Vitales and the Nunzios to ask for laughs, rather than encouraging them to do their best to pull off a really classy ceremony, which keeps being sidetracked by such issues as Uncle Luigi’s (Jacob Harran) bladder. Calm down, people. At $55-$65 a head, the audience isn’t going to go home early.

The cream of the show, in any case, isn’t the big set pieces. These we could get in a regular play. This wedding is most memorable for its little moments--moments that only you, as an astute observer of human nature, eavesdropping from the next table, would pick up on.

As in “Tamara,” you can decide which character interests you and follow him or her around. With my penchant for nuns, I was interested in Sister Albert Maria (Elizabeth Herring), who leads the congregation in song during the wedding ceremony--her own song, or at least her ditto sheet.

Sister Albert is Tina’s cousin, now teaching grammar school in San Antonio. She tried to be cheerful at the reception, but something was definitely bothering her, and it wasn’t just that Tina had ordered the band to play “Like a Virgin” by that awful Madonna person.

Was it that Sister Albert had once had a crush on Tony? I picked that up from one of the bridesmaids. But then she seemed to have something in for Sister Albert. As in the plays of Pirandello, and real life, a lot of the agendas being played out around the room stay half-hidden, and you quite don’t know whom to believe.

For instance, there is the whole question of what Tina n’ Tony are doing getting married in L.A. I asked Tina about it when I got my chance with her in the dollar dance. (Pin a dollar on the bride or groom, and you get a dance--old Italian custom.)

“Tony can’t go back to New York,” she told me.

“How come?” I asked.

“Better leave it at that.”

Got it. Tony and his pals do seem to be doing nicely on the West Coast, able to put their hands on VCR’s or, as one of them told me, “anything you need.” (I nodded wisely.) Moral: It doesn’t matter where you do business, if you know how to do business.

Got it. The gang who cooked up this show, Artificial Intelligence, definitely know theirs. “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” is so brilliant a piece of site-specific theater that it can move its site 3,000 miles without significant damage. It’s as much fun at the Park Plaza as it was in Washington Square, and to answer that all-important L.A. question: Yes, there is parking.

Plays at 607 Park View. Performances Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets $55-$65. (213) 466-1767. ‘TONY N’ TINA’S WEDDING’

A theater piece, presented by Artificial Intelligence at the Park Plaza Hotel. Conception Nancy Cassaro. Director Larry Pellegrini. Choreography Hal Simons. Scenic design Randall Thropp. Costumes, hair and makeup design Juan de Armas. Production stage manager James Ring. Producers Douglas Urbanski, Joseph Corcoran and Daniel Corcoran. With Nancy Cassaro, Mark Nassar, Chase Winton, Mark Campbell, Elizabeth Dennehy, James Altuner, Patricia Cregan, Eli Ganias, Susan Varon, Thomas Michael Allen, Jacob Harran, Jennifer Heftler, Elizabeth Herring, Chris Fracchiolla, Leila Kenzie, Denise Moses, Jack Fris, Vincent Floriani, Kevin Alexander, Joanna Cocca, Kathleen Dennehy, Carrie Gordon, Neil Monaco, Dan Maher, Michael Rapposelli, John Goffredo, Tony Dowdy, Kia Colton, Charlie Terrat, Jeffrey Winckler.