Theater Review : West Coast Ensemble’s ‘Eddie’: Some Flavor but Lacks the Beef

Ken Lipman’s “Eddie Quinn,” at the West Coast Ensemble, is a jaunty little urban tale, unpretentious to the point of being superficial. Still, it’s good for a spritz of New York flavor, for a few laughs and for some cheerfully entertaining performances under the direction of Claudia Jaffee.

The title character is having a bad day. Emotionally and financially drained by the funeral for his adoptive father and former truck-driving colleague, he’s seeking solace at his neighborhood hangout when a Mafia enforcer shows up to demand $7,000 that Eddie ripped off.

A barfly suggests that now’s the time for Eddie to seek out his biological parents. He finds them in a Park Avenue apartment, where he tries to charm--then bully--his way into their bank account.

As Eddie, Frankie Como is an exemplar of fast-talking, untutored New York smarts. When he joins his pals (Jerry Kernion, Lou Wagner) at the bar, they make up a motley but picturesque collection of different physical types, towered over by the enforcer (Clint Carmichael), whose heart becomes much too golden and gooey by play’s end.

The confrontation with the Park Avenue couple (Joyce Meadows, Michael Clair Miller) is tense and funny, but it also seems condensed, as if Lipman were trying to squeeze it into a TV time slot.

* “Eddie Quinn,” West Coast Ensemble, 6240 Hollywood Blvd. Mondays-Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Ends Nov. 23. $10. (213) 871-1052.