THEATER: Neil Simon’s wit finds a home in ‘Yonkers’

Theater J continues its strong season with its first-ever production of a full-length Neil Simon play, 1991’s “Lost in Yonkers.” Headed by the incandescent Holly Twyford as the developmentally disabled Bella and a rigorous performance by Tana Hicken as the formidable Grandma, the company delivers a memory play with sharpness and emotional depth.

Director Jerry Whiddon keeps the schmaltz — the playwright’s besetting flaw — to a minimum, taking pains to maintain the dramatic comedy’s period feel (it is set in the 1940s) without resorting to retro nostalgia. Daniel Conway’s sepia-toned set, with its flowered rugs and crocheted doilies on all the furniture, is inviting but also suggests a household that is tightly run and tightly wound.

The subject matter in “Lost in Yonkers” doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies, either. The cash-strapped widower Eddie (Kevin Bergin) has to go on the road selling scrap metal and is forced to leave his young sons Arty (Max Talisman) and Jay (Kyle Schliefer) with Grandma, who is not making hot cocoa and cookies for anyone anytime soon.

The family walks on eggshells around this steely and unyielding German immigrant — not just the childlike Bella, but also the gangster son Louis (a jaunty and menacing Marcus Kyd) and the other daughter, Gert (the underused but effective Lise Bruneau), who is so damaged by her upbringing that she has developed a gasping speech impediment.

“Lost in Yonkers” is a coming-of-age play about Arty and Jay learning not only how to survive but also to appreciate dysfunctional family members — especially when times are hard. Arty gets most of the zippy one-liners, which Mr. Talisman works like an adenoidal Rodney Dangerfield, while Mr. Schliefer’s Jay affectingly embodies the play’s emotional and sensitive side.

Yet, “Lost in Yonkers” also centers on Bella’s struggle for independence from her controlling mother and her demand to be treated like an adult despite her mental disabilities. Miss Twyford portrays Bella as a potent, unrestrained force of nature — openhearted and full of fears but more alive than her mother ever will be.

Whether she’s melting into a hug with her nephews, sitting on the couch chewing her fingernails or telling off Grandma with sweetness and steel, you can’t help but be drawn to Bella.

Or Miss Hicken’s Grandma. This is a wily performance, from the lemony grimaces she gives every time someone leans in to kiss her cheek to the way she wields her cane like a weapon. She plays not just the meanness, but the hard grief and neediness that twisted Grandma into who she is today. Although they were left behind in a strange neighborhood with a strange family, it is not Arty and Jay who are lost in Yonkers.

★★★½
WHAT: “Lost in Yonkers” by Neil Simon
WHERE: Theater J, 1529 16th St., NW
WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Saturdays, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Sundays, selected weekday matinees. Through Nov. 29.
TICKETS: $30 to $55
PHONE: 800/494-TIXS
WEB SITE: www.theaterj.org