Tender Moments in Uneven ‘Daughters’

John Morgan Evans’ comedy “Daughters” has a tendency to slip into sitcom mode, but there are some touching moments in this production at the Long Beach Playhouse.

Andrew Otero’s cheery yellow set with floral trim accents contrasts with the angst that fills this Brooklyn kitchen.

Tessie (Jody Fasanella) has been the pseudo-matriarch since her mother’s depression years ago. She acted as her sister Patty Ann’s (Gita Isak) mother and was caretaker for her non-English-speaking Italian grandmother (Jo Black Jacob).

Now Tessie is married and her 17-year-old daughter, Cetta (Devin Sidell), is planning to wed a successful lawyer. Tessie’s mother (Rosina Pinchot) cooks and worries about the right treatment for her husband’s throat cancer while Tessie still wants to be in charge.

Gregory Cohen directs with good comic timing, but he doesn’t always elicit emotional depth from the actors. Sidell’s Cetta is too calmly collected for a young girl whose mother is in a mental meltdown and whose father has deserted the family for a floozy. Yet the cast gives heartfelt performances during the passages of tender reflection.

Evans attempts to show how men shape the lives of these Italian American women, but without the necessary palpable male presence, which could have been seen or unseen. And do parents really rejoice when their high school daughters date much older men?

* “Daughters,” Long Beach Playhouse, Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Aug. 20, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 26. $12 to $15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours.