off-Broadway

As they crafted their act through alternative locations Off Broadway, the duo broke through to the mainstream in 1985 on “Saturday Night Live,” where they performed their trick in which an audience member had to guess the correct card to spare Teller from certain death.

And he transmits the inanity to his characters, who speak, move and act as if they are all part of a stage play that would get laughed off Broadway before previews have even ended.

But as relatives arrived at the business off Broadway and 5th Street in downtown Los Angeles on Monday morning, the scope of the loss was clear; millions of dollars in gold and jewels were gone and it was written all over the owner’s face.

An hour later, Johnny and Beansie were at the Salvation Army storefront south of Canal off Broadway, volunteering to be street Santas, ringing bells, quarters clanking into their tin buckets.

The current production’s starry, appealing cast, who also performed in a 2022 Off Broadway run at New York Theater Workshop, helped make the show a must-see even before audiences discovered that they liked the story and the songs and found the show both affecting and artful.