STAGE REVIEW : Odd Couple Has Moments in ‘Sophie and Willa’ at Tiffany

How did young, pregnant, black and single Willa ever get together with old, Jewish, white and single Sophie? Don’t ask. But the play that bears their names, at the Tiffany Theatre, does ask. The result is a cockeyed comedy of survival in a New York apartment building where almost nothing works, especially not privacy or plumbing.

“Sophie and Willa” is the latest odd couple sitcom to saunter our way, and it features two women great at trading some of the chewiest dialogue this side of the Holland Tunnel. The play, which has the odder distinction of being adapted by author Katharine Sloan from another play of the same title (by Michael Kassin), is not without its problems--enough of them to make the production at the Tiffany feel like a work-in-progress, though worth progressing along.

Willa (Francesca Roberts), who has been abandoned by the boyfriend who made her pregnant, is having a tough time dealing with her circumstance. You’d never know it, though, from the way her mouth works overtime, yowling at the super Schmidt (Richard Reicheg), hissing at her neighbor Sophie (Louise Fitch) or the huckster Jermaine (Shavar Ross), the young black “ gonif “ with whom Sophie sometimes has serious business dealings.

Like Jermaine, Sophie, age seventysomething and a wiz at gin rummy, is in retail trade. She sells stuff on street corners: shades, umbrellas, whatever comes her way, mostly through Jermaine. She’s an expert at the New York trench wars and she’s watching out for Sophie. An alternative title for this play: “Sophie Takes Charge.”

Which is exactly what she does in the improbable course of “Sophie and Willa.” First she moves in with Willa, then starts running her life, including hiring a nanny (the pinched and funny Lucy Lee Flippin) for the prospective baby.

That’s where “Sophie and Willa” starts to derail. There are many worthwhile aspects of the relationship between the title characters to be developed. That could add up to something. Instead, it is obfuscated by a lot of noisy, noisome trivia with Schmidt and Jermaine and even the nanny that gets in the way and clutters proceedings.

The first act is in the bigger trouble, with too many comings and goings that director Jill Andre and her actors haven’t managed to fine tune. The second act, though, has some real surprises, with twists that tug at the heartstrings, lifting “Sophie and Willa” slightly above the realm of ordinary sitcom.

It will never be heavy-duty stuff, but streamlined and more tightly wound, it could become a no-nonsense, sturdy little charmer.

At the moment, the production at the Tiffany is too busy and uneven to sustain itself. It careens from klutziness to frustration, with Fitch and Roberts sensitively matched, but not secure enough in their roles to give the comedy the needed briskness and polish.

Reicheg and Ross, in much sketchier (read superfluous) roles, are equally unstable. But like a flamingo poised on one leg, Flippin as the unflappable nanny maintains her balance when all about her are losing theirs.

Hilda Stark’s and Mayne Berke’s set is pure New York walk-up shabby--kitchen-sink realism that neatly conveys the crampness of the apartment as well as its semi-squalor. Shelly Sinclair’s lighting, Leonora Schildkraut’s sound design and Sarah Shaw’s costumes (this is almost an all-female production) function well.

In spite of the fact that it’s had a couple of them already, this play still boils down to 2 1/2 characters in search of an author--one with the guts to strip the piece down to its essentials and restructure it in a simpler, more immediate and compelling context.

Herb Gardner’s “I’m Not Rappaport,” after all, is no more the portrait of an offbeat relationship than this. The detailing is all.

At 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, Thursdays through Sundays, also Dec. 27, 8 p.m. No shows this Sunday and Dec. 31. Ends Jan. 14. Tickets: $17-$18.50; (213) 652-6165.