ALL THE RIGHT CASTING MOVES IN WELL-ACTED 'WRONG TURN'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Critic

EVER NOTICE how completely yet unobtrusively Hector Elizondo manages to walk away with whatever he happens to be acting in? Or how a really crummy movie can temporarily get just a little better whenever he steps on screen? Not so much a scene stealer, Elizondo - a staple of Garry Marshall's movies - is every bit the scene enhancer. Fourth or fifth banana, usually.

What's startling about Elizondo's work in the play ``Wrong Turn at Lungfish'' (co-written and directed by Garry Marshall and performing at Marshall's Falcon Theatre) is not the actor's smartly subtle performance in a decidedly showcase role. Peter Ravenswaal, the blind and cranky dean stuck in a hospital, is a role that Elizondo apparently played at a reading before the part was passed on to John Mahoney and, later, George C. Scott.

No, what may just be a first here is that Elizondo - who has gone toe to toe on screen with the likes of Julia Roberts and Julie Andrews - has found a scene partner worthy of his own abilities. Her name is Ana Ortiz, and her name belongs on the Riverside Drive marquee right up there next to Elizondo's.

Ortiz plays Anita, the woman dispatched to read bits of T.S. Eliot and Baudelaire - with a little porn thrown in to keep things lively - to Ravenswaal. She is there because nobody else can spend five minutes in the dean's presence without dodging flying plates. Anita endures the abuse, smiles, shrugs it off, pretends not to get it, and wins herself an unlikely admirer. The imperious Ravenswaal, who starts tapping his cane when her stories get too windy (``Short, short!'') and the sweet but tarty working-class Anita are, improbably, a winning pair.

At least, they are at the Falcon. For this play to work, it's not so important that we believe Ravenswaal is a brilliant mind as it is for us to accept his loneliness and, later, his fear. Elizondo doesn't bluster or mug - although the script (by Lowell Ganz and Marshall) practically begs for him to do so. Nor does he allow for even a thimbleful of treacle.

Ortiz, meanwhile, plays Anita as a would-be schemer who probably isn't any cagier than she appears. Smart choice. She dresses to thrill (the quite flattering costumes are by Denista Bliznakova), even though her quarry can't see, and she unabashedly proclaims her love - ad nauseam - for her gangster boyfriend Dominic (Jason Gedrick). In Ortiz's hands, this lady so ``doesn't get it'' for so long that it's extra satisfying when she finally does.

That realization is a little pat and predictable, but the production doesn't suffer for it. Ultimately, ``Lungfish'' is funny, a little bittersweet and possessed of some of the best chemistry since ... oh heck ... name your favorite concoction.

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

WRONG TURN AT LUNGFISH - Four stars

Where: Falcon Theatre, 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank.

When: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 4 p.m. Sunday; through Nov. 14.

Tickets: $30 to $37.50. Call [phone].

In a nutshell: The tale of a blind and cranky college dean (Hector Elizondo) and the sweet but tarty woman (Ana Ortiz) who reads poetry to him soars on the strength of its lead performances.

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Hector Elizondo is a blind college dean who is read poetry by the working-class Ana Ortiz in ``Wrong Turn at Lungfish,'' at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank.