In ‘Seltzer-Man,’ a Writer Struggles for Words

David Proval huffs and puffs but fails to breathe life into “Seltzer-Man,” a monologue written by Richard Krevolin, now at the Tiffany Theater.

Set at “the end of the ‘60s” inside a seedy apartment on the Lower East Side of New York, “Seltzer-Man” examines 48-year-old Seymour Allan Cohen, who delivers bottles of seltzer by day and tries to write poetry by night.

Talking to the audience between fruitless sessions at his typewriter, he tells us of his abusive father, his self-loathing mother, his strict yeshiva teacher and the day he insulted some Christian boys, who promptly beat him up. He discusses his World War II service in Hawaii and his problems with his girlfriend.

Overripe analogies are plentiful, but it’s unclear if these are simply examples of bad writing or if they’re Krevolin’s unsuccessful attempt to demonstrate how a bad writer talks.

Proval, whose performance as Richie Aprile in “The Sopranos” was a model of understated menace, here casts understatement aside in favor of mugging and ranting. Lisa James directed.

In a Times interview, Proval identified Jewish paranoia as the play’s theme, but in the theater the play appears to be nothing more than--to use one of the character’s own phrases--”self-indulgent musings.”

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“Seltzer-Man,” Tiffany Theater, 8532 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 3 and 7 p.m. Ends Oct. 14. $25-$30. (310) 289-2999. Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.