‘Lucky O’Learys’ Doesn’t Have Ticket

Cantankerous Irish American sisters vying for a winning lottery ticket might have seemed a serviceable comic premise, but whatever laugh potential may be at the core of “The Lucky O’Learys” remains largely untapped in author-director Jim Brochu’s staging at NoHo’s El Portal Center for the Arts. It’s rare to find a comedy that misfires so frequently and on so many levels.

At the outset, there appears to be a lot riding on the outcome of a $21-million lottery jackpot for 65-year-old Brooklyn homemaker Peg O’Leary (Mimi Cozzens). Separated and facing a prohibitively expensive conversion of her apartment into a condo, Peg has squandered her last $5,000 on lottery tickets, convinced that her obsolete patron saint (the de-canonized Philomena) will deliver her unto riches.

After a few formulaic twists, Peg gets her wish when her long-lost husband, Martin (Donald Bishop), arrives at a family gathering just in time to unearth the winning ticket--or so it seems. But though the win might turn out to be illusory, the safety net is immediately restored via another source, undermining any suspense. Even in an unapologetically screwball comedy built on compound improbability, there has to be something at stake. Here, the plot creaks to a mechanically predictable outcome--nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Originally conceived as a Lucille Ball vehicle (which never came to fruition), the uninspired plotting gets no salvation from a cast devoid of stellar comic personalities. For the most part, the Actors Alley ensemble delivers dutiful readings of stale punch lines. Falling particularly flat are Peg’s signature malapropisms (“priestly vacation” for “vocation,” “condom” for “condo” and “Costa Ricans” for “Cosa Nostra”). Bishop’s Martin and Frank Maziello’s turn as an Italian bookie are the most engaging performances of the lot.

Hemmed in by saints that are no longer saints, winning lottery tickets that prove worthless and jokes that aren’t funny, the O’Learys’ luck seems to have run out.

*

“The Lucky O’Learys,” El Portal Center for the Arts, Circle Theatre, 5269 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. Thursdays, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 22. $20. (818) 508-4200. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.