So this minister walks into a bar and buys this Jewish widow five Pink Squirrels.

Sound like the opening line from one of the countless "walks into a bar" jokes that have been around for as long as there have been bars? It probably could be, but it's actually the scenario that opens the gateway to the romance and comedy in Lakewood Theater's current offering, "At First Sight."

Not to be confused with the Val Kilmer-Mira Sorvino 1999 romantic drama movie of the same name, this "At First Sight," penned by Anne Pié and directed by Bobby Keniston, is a fluff piece that explores the question of whether a man and a woman already playing the back nine on the golf course of life can experience the same instant fireworks of love that one usually regards as the exclusive province of the young, starry eyed, and inexperienced.

You can probably guess the answer to the question already -- this is, after all, romantic comedy, not Wagnerian opera -- but getting there is what provides the fun for cast and audience.

It's difficult to talk about the play without spoiling the central dilemma that pushes the main character (Kelly Coughlin as 51-year-old Julia Goldman) into her romantic conflict at a time of life when most women are on the sidelines, meddling in the romantic conflicts of their adult children. But the script spends a fair number of interminable minutes revealing the dilemma, so to mention it here would only make those minutes all the more tedious for those in the audience waiting for the shoe to drop.

Suffice to say there is a problem, and it hits Julia's hypochondriac son (Isaac Davis) and self-absorbed daughter (Danielle Beaman) like a brisket to the side of the head.

Julia's oft-married older sister (Nancy McGuire) takes the situation much more in stride and greases the gears of the plot with her unflappable attempts to bring her sister together with the object of Julia's affection (Lee Davis, father of the above mentioned Isaac). The cast is rounded out by Lakewood veterans Cathie Starbird and James Paine.

It's an odd script in a number of ways. On the way out of the theater, I overheard a member of the audience asking his companion in reference to a portion of the second act, "What was the purpose of that scene?" I couldn't help but say to myself, "You got me, pal."

Unlike the farces that Lakewood turns out so regularly and so well, in which the comic situations themselves can't help but deliver the laughs, this comedy is character-centered and dialogue-driven. Accordingly, it rises or falls on the quality of the character portrayal, delivery and comic sense of the individual actors, and the dialogue and timing of the ensemble. From this standpoint, "At First Sight" gets a mixed report card.

For example, the younger Davis probably has more funny lines in the script than the audience realizes, because the laugh-getters get lost in his overly rapid, under-articulated and mistimed delivery.

Similarly, Coughlin's Julia is indeed written to be at wit's end over her improbable situation, but there is a way to do "at wit's end" while maintaining enough control to make it appear natural, and Coughlin too often could not restrain Julia from going over the top.

Beaman was delightful in last season's "Nobody's Perfect," and she's only gotten more skilled in the intervening year. She has the mouthy daughter character down pat, and one would love to see what she could do with more demanding material.

The elder Davis is perfect as Julia's love interest. His character is obviously a gentleman, albeit not socially skilled and quite inexperienced in the ways of romance, and Davis brings him to life convincingly, sympathetically and skillfully.

Nancy McGuire plays the character Nancy McGuire has played before, but she does it so well that it wears well from context to context. Her facial expressions and her stage movement get her laughs, but her delivery of lines in that distinctive voice get her big laughs.

Will tears of laughter roll down your cheeks? No. Is it an essentially well done and amusing exploration of love in bloom amongst the Boomers? Yes.

It's a comedy without mistaken identities or cross dressing, and it's always nice to see one of those on the Lakewood stage.

Ken Ganza is an actor and a teacher living in Waterville. He is leaving Maine; this is his last theater review.