"Lost in Yonkers," by Neil Simon, at Beckett Theater After experiencing the warmly satisfying revival of "Lost in Yonkers" at the Beckett Theater it seems inconceivable that it has taken two decades for this Pulitzer- and Tony-winning 1991 Neil Simon play to return to a New York stage. Continuing in a similar vein to his Brighton Beach trilogy, Mr. Simon is working here not as king of the snappy one-liner but from the heart, with a depth of character, humanity and personal investment that place "Lost in Yonkers" among his more affecting works. The director Jenn Thompson and her accomplished cast strike an ideal balance between poignancy and humor in this modest, delicately calibrated production for TACT/The Actors Company Theater. The action is filtered through the eyes of 15-year-old Jay (Matthew Gumley) and his ginger-topped brother, Arty (Russell Posner), who is two years younger. When their father, Eddie (Dominic Comperatore), is forced to take a job on the road to pay off debt from his deceased wife's cancer treatment, the two junior Bronx wiseguys are sent to stay with their unwelcoming Grandma Kurnitz (Cynthia Harris) for most of 1942. A steely Jewish refugee from Germany, Grandma lives above her candy store in Yonkers, but there's nothing sweet about her. That deficit is countered by the boys" overexcitable Aunt Bella (Finnerty Steeves), a childlike woman in her mid-30s, described by Jay as "closed for repairs." The text has been trimmed slightly to intensify its focus, ditching the transitional interludes of Eddie's letters home. Thanks to winning work from the young actors, the play wades through familiar coming-of-age territory amiably enough. But its real dramatic engine is the slow-combustion clash between unyielding Grandma and emotionally starved Bella. On Broadway, Irene Worth and Mercedes Ruehl won Tonys for those roles (reprised by both actresses in the somewhat strained 1993 movie). In this production Ms. Harris and Ms. Steeves permeate the characters with complex layers of painful experience. Having witnessed violence as a girl and endured the loss of two of her six children to illness, Grandma has encased herself in loveless solitude. Like stunted Bella and timid Eddie, her other remaining adult children carry the legacy of her fearsome coldness. Gert (Stephanie Cozart) is a walking respiratory complaint, and Louie (Alec Beard), a swaggering bagman for the mob, attributes his toughness to Ma's example. Mr. Simon observes the frayed bonds of this damaged family with a light touch where appropriate but also with honesty and compassion, making the climactic face-off between Bella and her mother all the more moving. The commercial fate of David Cromer's unjustly short-lived 2009 Broadway revival of "Brighton Beach Memoirs" (and its aborted companion piece, "Broadway Bound") showed that Mr. Simon's name is no longer the selling point it once was. This lovely production suggests that there's still much to savor in his work.