Finely Acted ‘Proposals’ Misses Mark

Community theaters from coast to coast owe a lot to Neil Simon, whose vast body of comedies continues to provide these groups with an endless supply of crowd-pleasing fare.

Once in a while, they even veer away from “The Odd Couple” or “Prisoner of Second Avenue” for a more substantial Simon outing, such as “Brighton Beach Memoirs” or--as in the case of the Woodland Hills Community Theatre--the more recent “Proposals.”

At least, “Proposals” seems substantial when you’re watching it. And in its first Los Angeles revival after its 1997 premiere engagement at the Ahmanson Theatre, the dramedy looks and sounds fine under Jon Berry’s direction in the company’s new home. The mid-100-seat West Valley Playhouse is a vast improvement over the past haunts in a church gym.

But “Proposals” is finally far less than the sum of its parts: a deliberate balancing act between Chekhov’s human comedy and Shakespeare’s mad-lovers-in-summer antics in which the antics pointlessly distract from the humanity.

The first impressions here are terrific: In an unusually well-cast lineup, including a few pros, Annzella Victoria establishes a warm, autumnal feel as Clemma, black maid to the Hines family who, as a ghost, remembers the clan’s last summer at its retreat in the Pennsylvania Poconos in the 1950s.

Even with the nagging feeling that Simon is being a tad condescending by making Clemma out to be the play’s font of wisdom and reflection, her effort to “rescue” Hines father figure Burt (Steve Ruggles) from having a third heart attack provides the setup with a greater, more real urgency than most Simon plays.

And, more than in most of his work, the interaction between characters gives off the friction of real lives, as with Burt’s daughter, Josie (Vanessa Lozano), who has just called off her marriage to the miffed Ken (David L. Corrigan), or the interplay between Josie and Ken’s pal, Ray (Craig Duswalt), amounting to one of the more unpredictable relationships Simon has ever written.

Or, for that matter, between Clemma and her long-absent husband, Lewis (Fitz Houston), whose tentative reconciliation has the stuff of a play all by itself, and is done here to near perfection.

Even a more standard clash, as that between Josie and her mother, Annie (Kathryn Terwilliger), ultimately delivers some rewarding emotional exchanges of the heart, with Terwilliger smartly playing the mother as utterly unlike the superficial floozy Josie depicts her as before her entrance.

What undermines all of this is the sheer collecting of all of this--and much, much more--inside one overstuffed play. After writing several fine dialogue scenes that put these characters under our skin as only a master craftsman can, Simon plays the broad comedy card and contrives a ridiculous situation, in which a bevy of outsiders converge on the Hines retreat on the same day.

These include mobster-in-training Vinnie (Chuck Licata) and Ray’s model girlfriend Sammii (Hara Finnegan, who doesn’t look like a model), both bringing an intrusive factor to the play that is severely damaging to the story’s purpose and momentum.

It’s a measure of how well Berry manages things--along with actors nicely matched with each other (Ruggles and Lozano feeling quite at home, in and out of Victoria Profitt’s compact but evocative house set)-that the rudest effects of the comedy are fought off by a gentle approach to the material.

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“Proposals,” West Valley Playhouse, 7242 Owensmouth Ave., Canoga Park. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2:30 p.m. Ends Oct. 29. $15-$17. (818) 884-1907. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes.