THEATER REVIEW / ‘PRISONER OF SECOND AVENUE’ : Wringing Laughs From Urban Horrors : Neil Simon’s play, set on New York’s East Side, takes aim at such familiar ‘90s problems as noise, pollution and crime.

Though in many ways the quintessential New Yorker, Neil Simon wasn’t numbered among the proud boosters of The City that Never Sleeps 20 or so years ago. His 1970 film script, “The Out of Towners,” was a comic horror story in which tourists are subjected to some of the direst things that can happen to visitors to the Big Apple.

A year later, Broadway theatergoers were first exposed to “The Prisoner of Second Avenue,” a comic horror story in which upscale residents are subjected to many of the direst things that can happen to citizens of the Big Apple.

Not only was Simon bitter about his hometown in those days, he was repetitious.

The folks at the newly reorganized Ottavio’s Dinner Theatre are presenting “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” And while the play is amusing enough--for confirmed non-New Yorkers as much as for those who have fled the city--the frustrations of urban decay and unemployment are even less confined to New York City in the ‘90s than they were when Simon wrote the play.

Jim Seerden and Annie Sullivan star as Mel and Edna Edison in what is, for the greater part of the evening, virtually a two-character play. After six years, life on the 14th floor of a cramped East Side apartment is finally getting to advertising account executive Mel: the noise and pollution at first, and then a burglary. Then, Mel loses his job . . .

Edna, more optimistic, stands by him and gets a job as a secretary. But confinement to the apartment drives Mel even closer to the brink of emotional exhaustion. Listening to talk radio all day warps his mind further. And yes, this is a comedy.

Director Martin Horsey keeps the pace up commendably: The play tears along as Mel tries to cope with his surroundings. Seerden is wonderfully cast, his perpetually hangdog expression reminiscent of Walter Matthau, with Sullivan bringing a balancing brightness to Edna. Toward the end, Jan Peters, Nita Fouhse, Arlene Weisenberg and Judy Heiliger pop up, all just fine, as Mel’s long-estranged relatives rallying to rescue him financially and emotionally.

In recent years, this company has presented Simon plays including “The Good Doctor,” “Plaza Suite” and “Last of the Red Hot Lovers,” with “Come Blow Your Horn” slotted as its next production, in January. If, between your salad and entree, you hear some far-away keyboard clicking, it may be the sound of Simon at the typewriter, working on what will be Ottavio’s 1994 season.

Details

* WHAT: “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.”

* WHEN: Thursday through Sunday nights through Nov. 20. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and curtain time is 8:15 p.m. for all shows, with no performances this Saturday and Oct. 23 and 30.

* WHERE: At Ottavio’s Dinner Theatre, at Ottavio’s Banquet Hall, 340 N. Mobil Ave., Camarillo.

* COST: Tickets for Thursday and Friday performances, including a buffet dinner and non-alcoholic beverage, are $25 per person; Saturday shows, which include a full-serve dinner, are $35 per person.

* FYI: A cash bar is also available. For reservations or further information, call 484-9909.