New comedies find laughs in the world of theater

Frayn's Tony Award-winning serious drama of several seasons back, "Copenhagen," was based on a series of conversations. "Noises Off," one of the funniest backstage comedies ever written, is less dependent on dialogue than on a variety of sight gags that no doubt date back to a performance in ancient Greece when an actor tripped over his sandal, fell on his face, and discovered that he could make the audience laugh.

Under the direction of Jeremy Sams, the cast thinks nothing of risking life and appendages by falling down stairs, crashing through windows of broken glass, and crossing a second-story balcony by clinging to the fake ivy. The play proceeds though three acts of accelerating breakdowns, from a final dress rehearsal, to an evening mid-way in the run, to the closing performance, when nothing is left of theatrical decorum.

Along the way, the audience learns as much about the off-stage animosities and rivalries of the actors as those of the characters they are supposed to be playing. Patti Lupone, as the aging ex-star portraying a slovenly housekeeper, is hilarious as she mugs and slouches her way through the dual role; Peter Gallagher is perfect as the über-dictator of a director who treats the actors as his personal puppets. A cupcake of a confection, Katie Finneran, in the role of the trophy girlfriend and ingenue, is a comic discovery, mixing her off-stage relationship with Gallagher into the on-stage shenanigans without missing a double take or double-entendre.

Neil Simon has reverted to the early days

of his career, when he was a gag writer for Sid Caesar, to deliver 45 Seconds From Broadway, two hours and 10 minutes of one-liners that keep the audience howling. However, what's missing is the theatrical glue of character development, believable relationships, and a plot line.

The play takes place on set designer John Lee Beatty's nostalgic, sepia-drenched re-creation of the coffee shop at the Edison Hotel (which, in real life, is across the street from the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where "45 Seconds From Broadway" is playing). Known fondly as the Polish Tearoom, the restaurant is a hangout where actors, wanna-be stars just off the bus from Ohio, producers, and would-be dealmakers meet for tea-and-sympathy from the proprietors - and certainly an order of cheese blintzes on the side.

The leading man and restaurant regular is stage comic Mickey Fox, Simon's affectionate tribute to Jackie Mason. As portrayed by Lewis J. Stadlen, who has cloned his role model's rat-a-tat deadpan delivery and gestures, Fox becomes a master of ceremonies, conducting interviews with the other customers in the shop.

These include the requisite young girl who wants to make it as a actress; the struggling playwright, this time a proud black man from South Africa; and a pair of Long Island matron matinee-goers, who serve as a mini-Greek chorus.

The change-of-pace couple, the Brownings, are as bizarre in conception as in performance. The distinguished actress Marian Seldes, as Mrs. Browning III, and Bill Moor as her husband, deserve an award for courage in taking them on.

No doubt there are people like Simon's inventions striding the streets off Times Square - we've seen them on stage dozens of times before - but his take on their lives feels like a first draft of strung-together scenes, or an evening's worth of characters from Caesar's "The Show of Shows."

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