ATTENTION GETTERS–Bea, portrayed by Nancy Solomons, and Frank, played by Jerry Nehring, starred in the recent Conejo Players production of “Lovers and Other Strangers.” When it made its debut in 1968, “Lovers and Other Strangers,” by the husbandandwife team of Renée Taylor and Joseph Bologna, suffered from ill-timing. Up against Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite” and Abe Burrows’ “Cactus Flower,” the play could aspire to be only the third-best show in town, and it lost steam after only 70 performances. There is no escaping the fact that the play is mostly spotty with a few high points.

In the show’s two-week run at Conejo Players Theatre, the cast did its best to make the most of the uneven material.

The play consists of five vignettes, each focusing on romantic couples in various stages of life. The elements shared by each of the stories are romantic struggles and the power of women in relationships. A motion picture version of the play in 1970 features a rewritten script in which all of the characters know each other, with the stories surrounding an impending wedding. It was the success of this film that kept the original play alive, although its weaknesses are still evident.

In the first story, Jerry (Sean Parks) is a would-be Lothario who has just picked up Brenda (Carrie Poppy), a giddy but nervous bookworm, and taken her to his apartment. The overeager lounge lizard is befuddled by Brenda’s vacillating between playing hard-to-get and being an impulsive sexpot. Poppy is charming in the part, resembling a giggly Cameron Diaz.

In one of the weaker segments, Hal (Matt McGee) and Cathy (Brandy Paolini) have been having a five-year affair, which comes to a head when Cathy demands Hal leave his wife of 15 years. Their encounter takes place in a bathroom as Hal tries to hang on to his illicit but convenient double life.

The third story plays like a Harvey Korman/Carol Burnett sketch with Wilma (Sharon Gibson), a hot-to-trot housewife trying unsuccessfully to arouse her cold-fish hubbie Johnny (Bob Farber). Johnny feels he is being emasculated by his overaggressive wife, and the two argue incessantly about who wears the pants in the family. Neither character is very likable, and the performances seem too polite for the vitriolic dialogue. The best line is the last one, in which Wilma says, “Are you going to let me surrender to you or not?”

The show improves after intermission with a great performance by David Chatfield as Mike, a groomtobe who is getting cold feet and tries to talk his fiancee, Susan (Tara Golson), out of getting married—four days before their wedding. The segment is basically a monologue by Chatfield, who does what one should never do when stuck in a hole: dig your way out. After insulting everything about Susan, including her thin arms, he exclaims, “You shouldn’t take it personally!”

The final segment is the best: a sequence featuring Richy and Joan, a battling couple married 16 years (Ray Mastrovito and Lois Lorback), and Richy’s in

terfering parents, Frank (Jerry Nehring) and Bea (Nancy Solomons). Nehring has a succession of great laugh lines and throws them off like a pro. Solomons is per

fect as the quintessential nagging mother figure.

The vignettes are separated by four musical interludes that are basically karaoke routines of hits by ’60s and ’70s icons. The best are Chatfield as a ukulelestrumming Tiny Tim (“Tip Toe Through the Tulips”) and Mastrovito, who is perfect as Tom Jones, catching underwear of all shapes and sizes while miming to “It’s Not Unusual.”

For information on upcoming plays, visit the website www .conejoplayers.org or call (805) 495-3715.