‘Breakfast’ Broadcasts Message Without Static : Theater: ‘This is about the power of love,’ the playwright says of his comedy about a radio couple.

Growing up in Philadelphia in the ‘50s, Lee Kalcheim could always count on a few things at breakfast. The smell of his parents’ coffee, a bowl of cereal and “Dorothy and Dick,” a popular radio program broadcast from New York starring Dorothy Kilgallen and Richard Kollmar.

Kalcheim, who grew up to be a playwright, among other things, thought “Dorothy and Dick” was the top of style, a daily link to Manhattan sophistication. Besides, the boy felt he knew Kilgallen and Kollmar, that they were a part of his world.

“I was always so impressed; they just breathed class into Philadelphia,” Kalcheim recalled during a recent telephone interview from his home in east Massachusetts. “Later I realized that I had supposed a lot about their lives, just because they’d talk about personal things and the show (originated from) their living room.

“I wanted to explore (that) more, so I created characters and showed what might take place with their public persona and their private persona, mixing the two. I thought it was a great comedic idea.”

The result was “Breakfast With Les and Bess,” which premiered at the Hudson Guild Theater in New York City in 1982, moving to Broadway the following year. The comedy about a radio couple and the small troubles that threaten to crack their domestic facade opens tonight in its Orange County premiere at the Laguna Playhouse.

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Kalcheim, who has written for television, including “All in the Family,” and is the co-creator of “Something Wilder,” starring Gene Wilder on NBC, said he set “Breakfast With Les and Bess” in 1961 because it was “a time of innocence and flux.”

Back then, Kalcheim explained, amiable radio programs were the norm; the Kennedy years were sprinkled with Camelot dust, and rock ‘n’ roll was only beginning to push its way into the mainstream media through TV programs such as “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Howard Stern was just a kid.

“It really was a time of innocence, but also tremendous change,” he said. “People were on the move, especially in New York. The (baseball) teams were moving (the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles, the New York Giants to San Francisco), and people were heading out, too.

“That’s what I was thinking about when I first started to write it, but then I realized it was really about a couple of people, how their lives change,” he said. “The microphone literally comes between them, (and) their relationship begins to dissolve.”

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Bess is a charming socialite who is able to move easily among Manhattan’s elite. Les is likable, too--an ex-baseball announcer who’d rather be at the game. They’re fine on the air, keeping up the cozy chatter, but they aren’t quite as in touch off the set, especially with their children.

When their son, David, calls to tell them he just drove the family car into the Central Park lake, things get iffy. Then there’s the business with the Navy ensign who married their daughter after knowing her two days.

Such are the problems of romantic comedy, Kalcheim said. But everything works out in the end, he added. “Ultimately, this is about the power of love. We tend to lose that spark (when) things begin to distract us. You can’t let that happen; that’s the spine of this play.”

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Although dismissed by some critics as trivial, “Breakfast With Les and Bess” received many positive reviews for its humor and warmth. The play was produced as an “American Playhouse” offering for PBS in 1985.

At the time, Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales wrote: “ ‘Breakfast With Les and Bess’ seems a very endearing, not an irritating, anachronism. (It) is a play for old times’ sake, set in 1961 before all hell broke loose and ran riot. . . . No one who sees the play will be surprised to hear that Kalcheim has written lots of situation comedy scripts, but the better kind, like ‘All in the Family.’ ”

The play has special interest for Robert Robinson, who is directing the Laguna Playhouse production. He first saw it in New York about 10 years ago.

“This is a very human play,” Robinson said. “It’s not just a ‘60s trip or a throwback. This could happen anywhere, at any time to anybody. It’s really about intimacy.”

Robinson would seem an apt choice; besides directing at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival and San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, he’s associate producer and director of “The Play’s the Thing” drama series broadcast over National Public Radio.

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The radio world that Les and Bess inhabit is completely different from the one run by current stars such as Stern, he said. Where their “shout shows,” as Robinson calls them, want to excite or antagonize their audiences, Les and Bess are more interested in “pleasure agendas.”

“Their whole idea is to put people at ease, to create an oasis of contentment and relaxation,” Robinson said. “I think that people miss that.”

As for his radio experience, Robinson stressed that it meant little during the staging. “It has helped in making the look and sound of an actual broadcast seem reasonably accurate in the production, but a play set on a ship might not necessarily be about a ship.

“This is set around radio, but it’s not really about radio. It’s about (Les and Bess), their relationship with themselves, their public and their children.”

* The Laguna Playhouse’s production of Lee Kalcheim’s romantic comedy “Breakfast With Les and Bess” opens tonight at 8 at the Moulton Theater, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Continues through Feb. 5. $17 to $22; (714) 494-8021.