One-acts by Woody, Ethan Coen, Elaine May

Marlo Thomas, daringly ludicrous as an aging spoiled princess in Baby Jane drag, curls up at a TV while theme songs from old TV shows ("I Love Lucy" and "Bewitched") define the age range of the target audience for Elaine May's "George Is Dead."

Hilarity is meant to ensue when Steve Guttenberg runs off with his stepson's luscious young bride at the altar in Woody Allen's "Honeymoon Motel," after which vulgarian Jewish wives make their annoyance known, annoyingly.

A prisoner, in session with the jailhouse shrink, blames his underachievements on his miserable mother's desire for him to be another Jascha Heifetz (the violinist who died almost a quarter century ago) in Ethan Coen's "Talking Cure."

One can kindly describe "Relatively Speaking," the umbrella title for these three minor playlets by major comedy writers, as a theatrical throwback. Unfortunately, throwbacks, if they are to get somewhere, need to have aim, momentum and a sense of direction.

For those keeping score, Allen's play has the most jokes. May's has the most heart. And Coen seems the most lost.

John Turturro, directing but not appearing, goes for the comedy-by-the-numbers style of mugging and hollering here. The cast of 15 -- huge for Broadway -- includes lots of America's old friends, including Julie Kavner, Grant Shaud and Mark Linn-Baker. But most have tiny cameo roles, suggesting more fun may be happening backstage than out front.

Thomas has a virtuosic lack of vanity as Doreen, the almost blissfully oblivious and grotesque new widow in "George Is Dead," a pouty monster with the insight to whine, "I don't have the depth to feel this bad." The always-excellent Lisa Emery is almost too poignant for the supposed humor as the oppressed grown daughter of Doreen's nanny.

"Honeymoon Motel" has an adorably tacky set (by Santo Loquasto) and builds to an almost giddy chaos by tossing 10 comedy experts into a pile of Borscht-belt characters with unpleasant subtexts. Richard Libertini, as a demented eulogy-spewing rabbi, deserves his own play.

Coen, who has created squeaky-dry and witty sketches of unrepentant humanity for the Atlantic Theater Company, kicks off the triptych with a heavy foot about the roots of disappointed lives.

Overall, as I often think when people around me are inexplicably laughing, I wish I were there.

WHAT "Relatively Speaking"

WHERE Atkinson Theatre, 256 W. 47th St.

INFO $55-$135; 877-250-2929; relativelyspeakingbroadway.com

BOTTOM LINE Comedy throw-backs . . . but to where?