Regan, Kaye Photo by Craig Schwartz

Clichéd and corny, square and safe, Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers has found itself the inaugural production on the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre stage of San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Despite its dated style and old-fashioned humor, this Pulitzer prize-winning comedy by one of America's favorite playwrights still offers a surprise or two, and it has not lost its way to Chuckletown.

Credit for that belongs to a superb cast, especially the two young men playing the lead roles, and Scott Schwartz's capable direction. Bringing this old warhorse to renewed life as a lively trotter could not have been an easy task on the White's diminutive, theatre-in-the-round stage, but the production does not suffer from the lack of space.

Ralph Funicello's scenic design replicates the 1940s living room of a middle class Jewish family home with a staircase to the unseen, family-owned candy store below. The staging takes advantage of the aisles, which resemble spokes from the central stage that lead to the exterior tunnel-like corridor "wheel," to allow exits and entrances that stretch out the action.

Not that there is a lot of action in this Simon-typical talky play. The story showcases a family in flux, turned inside out by financial and bereavement disruptions, leaving all its dysfunctions showing. Two adolescent brothers, Arty and Jay, must come to live with their controlling and humorless Grandma Kurnitz while their erstwhile father Eddie travels the country selling scrap metal to earn the money to pay back the thousands he borrowed from the mob. With their mother recently dead of the cancer that racked up the medical bills necessitating the ill-conceived loan, the boys have no choice but to adapt.

Making it somewhat easier for them are their odd aunts, the child-like Bella and the speech-afflicted Gert, and their uncle Louie, a small-time hood. The characters are caricatures, typical of this playwright's brand of comedy, but the exaggeration creates easy understanding.

Convincingly, even frighteningly, played by Tony-award winner, Judy Kaye, Grandma Kurnitz is a mean old lady. She thumps around, dragging one foot like Quasimodo and stomping her cane menacingly, and she makes it quite clear that her grandsons are not welcome guests but undesirable obligations. (What is it with the Globe's current season of plays featuring such unpleasant old women as this Grandma and Lilly of the currently running Whisper House?) Justified in the script as a product of war-torn Germany and its Darwinian survival of the fittest culture, Grandma's callous nature denies love, for herself and everyone else.

She makes Eddie (adroitly played as a nervous nebbish by Spencer Rowe) her youngest son and a new widower beg for refuge for his two boys. She terrorizes Gert (a hilarious and deft Amanda Naughton), whose asthmatic wheeze is the symptom of stress born of a very unpleasant life, but it makes for some of the play's funniest moments.

Ironically, it is the least capable family member, the simple-minded but exuberantly weird Bella, who manages to win the life she wants. Jennifer Regan nearly steals the show with her Carol Burnett interpretation of the dingy aunt, delicately balancing the comedy with pathos and sensitivity.

Fortunately, Steven Kaplan (as Jay) and Austyn Myers (as little brother Arty) are accomplished beyond their years, quite up to the tasks of their respective roles. Kaplan plays the older, quieter, perhaps wiser brother without letting him disappear among the play's wildly excited characters. He shows Jay's strength and sensitivity, yet makes his several angry flare-ups rise naturally rather than melodramatically.

There is drama enough in Arty's character, and the perfectly cast Myers handles his cheeky charm with adorable aplomb. Arty is the kid who instinctively understands how to play up to each family member, and he may win over even his reluctant grandmother. Myers could be that kid, so adept is he at the role.

Louie (Jeffrey M. Bender) was once like Arty, but life and his angry mother have made him cynical, at times emotionally abusive. Bender's interpretation contains too much yelling. If he were to temper that bellowing somewhat, Louie would have as much depth throughout as he has in the (best and funniest) scene where the entire family has gathered to hear Bella's unexpected news.

This is not a deep play. It is a somewhat simple play. But it has its charm and funny moments, and the actors make a visit to the old neighborhood worthwhile.

Neil Simon's "Lost in Yonkers" runs through February 28 on the Old Globe's Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre stage in San Diego's Balboa Park. Show times: Tues-Weds at 7 pm; Thurs-Sat at 8 pm; Sun at 7 pm. Sat & Sun matinees at 2 pm. Tickets: $29-62, with discounts for full-time students, patrons 29 year of age and younger, seniors and groups of 10 or more. Reservations: www.TheOldGlobe.org or phone (619) 23-GLOBE.