'The Performers': Love and porn in Las Vegas

• New play (**1/2 out of four) features Henry Winkler, Cheyenne Jackson, Alicia Silverstone
• Action takes place at Adult Film Awards in Las Vegas
• And yes, Henry Winkler is in on the joke

NEW YORK — For all the under-served talent in Broadway's The Performers (* *½ out of four), the production boasts one indisputable stroke of casting genius.

In David West Read's new play, which opened Wednesday at the Longacre Theatre, Henry Winkler appears as Chuck Wood, an aging porn star given to crowing about his, um, sizable credentials. Thus the actor who, as Fonzie on the '70s TV smash Happy Days, defined effortless cool for a generation of pre-adolescents turns up as a has-been stud trying way too hard to sustain his youthful glory.

It's crass genius, of course; but what else would you expect from a play set around the Adult Film Awards in Las Vegas? It is here, at a hotel, that Chuck encounters his younger rival — a guy who calls himself Mandrew — and some female colleagues. Mandrew's straight-laced high school buddy is also in town, accompanied by his demurely pretty fiancée, to profile his old classmate for a New York tabloid.

A very funny play could likely be written involving these people and circumstances, but I suspect it would include less conversation. Certainly, it would feature less of the dialogue that Read offers here, which aims primarily to show us, over and over again, how dimwitted and base his title characters are — only to turn around and ask us to care about them, and maybe learn a little something from their off-camera dramas.

The trials are predictable: Mandrew and his wife and fellow performer, Peeps (short for "Pussy Boots"), worry about their careers; and she grows jealous of his love scenes, particularly after learning that one surgically enhanced blonde kissed him — a sign of true and deep affection in their industry, apparently. The journalist, Lee, and his math-teacher girlfriend, Sara, alternately fret about being too boring and staying monogamous.

Throughout, there are endless references to body parts and all manner of sexual activity. Some are amusing, but those who are more discriminating about penis and masturbation jokes may find the barrage of hit-or-miss material tedious after a while.

Luckily, the cast is game, and director Evan Cabnet keeps the proceedings light and relatively fast-paced. Physically, the role of Mandrew fits musical-theater hunk Cheyenne Jackson like a pair of skintight briefs, and he clearly has fun with it. Ari Graynor, who has made a sort of specialty of feisty, overripe ingénues, proves equally sporting as Peeps.

The wonderful comic actor Daniel Breaker has a tougher job as the drab Lee, but at least manages to work in some nifty deadpan reactions. And a fetching Alicia Silverstone finds a little kick in the sometimes irritatingly earnest Sara.

As for Winkler, who is very much in on the joke of his inclusion, his Chuck ultimately evolves from an embarrassing geezer to a cuddly father figure. The progress is, of course, neither surprising nor convincing; but like the other performers here, Winkler makes it as entertaining as possible.