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Eddie Quinn

 ((West Coast Ensemble, Hollywood; 99 seats; $ 10 top))

By CHRISTOPHER MEEKS

West Coast Ensemble, under the direction of Les Hanson, presents a drama in one act by Ken Lipman. Producer-director, Claudia Jaffee; set decorator, Kerry Haynie; fight choreographer, Jerry Kernion. Opened Nov. 1, 1994; reviewed Dec. 3 ; runs through Dec. 10. Running time: 90 min.
 
Eddie Quinn ... Frankie Como Mike ... Jerry Kernion Willie ... Lou Wagner Dom ... Clint Carmichael Barbara White ... Joyce Meadows Leonard White ... Michael Clair Miller In an examination of the good heart that beats under a tough-guy veneer, playwright Ken Lipman offers a great premise that glows at times, but ultimately falls into cliche and an arching authorial hand. However, the production is blessed with a great cast and direction by Claudia Jaffee.
 

Eddie Quinn (Frankie Como), a truck driver living in New York's Little Italy , has just buried his adopted father. To pay for the funeral, he took graft money to let some hoods steal his truck, loaded with cameras. Problem is, the cameras were going to a mobsterowned store.

A well-dressed mobster muscleman (Clint Carmichael), who has recovered the merchandise, demands $ 7,000 in reprisal from Eddie in a week -- or else. Desperately working through his usual alcoholic haze, Eddie hunts for and finds his biological parents (Joyce Meadows and Michael Clair Miller), who turn out to be quite well off.

Here the play gets most interesting: a fleeting glimpse of nature vs. nurture. Alas, it doesn't last long, and Lipman then carves the play into a square peg of moral message. Eddie, as if touched by divine inspiration, does not take their money. His arms get broken, he befriends the muscleman afterward, and seems to be a whole new and positive person. Money just doesn't buy happiness. While the scene with his parents has a structural logic to it, and the climax shows character arc, one has to swallow a lot of sitcom-style logic to find the ending believable. With very little that surprises, the play is transparent in its goals.

Lipman, however, has created some great lines: "I got nothing," Eddie says early on, "but at least I earned it"; the plight of the blue-collar class comes across clearly.

The cast, too, has been chosen well. Como's Eddie is a magnetic loser, a mangy cur with personality. Lou Wagner and Jerry Kernion, as Eddie's friends, make solid impressions, as does Carmichael as the muscleman. Meadows and Miller as the couple who gave Eddie away at his birth 35 years ago show a feeling of regret that works.

The play suffers for having to be performed on the set of another production, and not all the choices to compensate make sense. But in the end the performers have a good showcase of their talent.