The Yin and Yang of Life and Love in the Theater

Lots of couples finish each other’s sentences. Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna do so for a living.

Married for 30 years and writing partners for nearly as long, they’re best known for their 1968 Broadway hit “Lovers and Other Strangers,� which became the 1970 film of the same name and garnered the duo an Academy Award nomination.

They have won Writers’ Guild and Emmy awards, and recently co-wrote, co-directed and starred in a feature film called “Oh No, Not Her,� for which they are negotiating distribution for later this year.

Taylor and Bologna are, however, also one of the premier couples of stage comedy, with 15 short and four full-length plays to their credit. The most recent evidence of that success is their “Bermuda Avenue Triangle� (which they co-wrote and co-star in with Beatrice Arthur), which just finished a sold-out three-month run at the 99-seat Tiffany Theatre and reopens at the 382-seat Canon Theatre on Sunday.

Together, Taylor and Bologna--who will mark their 30th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows tonight--embody the yin and yang of the Borscht Belt aesthetic.

She’s the hotsy-totsy Jewish blond with the chutzpah and presence of a latter-day Fanny Brice. He’s the suave yet shrewd Italian shtick-meister who keeps an eye on the big picture.

It’s a balance that works, they say, both offstage and on. “With any kind of relationship, whether it’s a marriage or a partnership, you have to be alike and different at the same time,� Bologna says at the couple’s Beverly Hills home of 20 years.

“You have to share things and feel things a certain way, but at the same time, you have to be totally different,� he continues. “Otherwise, why would you need each other?�

Fortunately, their contrasts appear to be complementary. “He’s very orderly and conservative and I’m very outrageous,� Taylor says. “That’s our balance. Only, he pulled me to where he is a little bit, and I pulled him to where I am a little bit. And in the middle we have a synergy.�

The vivacious Taylor, born Renee Wexler in the Bronx (probably 60-some years ago, judging from previous reports, though she ducks the age question), trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

She began her career off-Broadway and went on to roles on Broadway and in national touring companies. Long a popular guest on TV variety and talk shows, she’s worked regularly over the years in both film and TV and currently can be seen as the lead character’s mother on the sitcom “The Nanny.�

Bologna, 59, broke into show biz by writing and directing TV commercials before making it as a film actor. He is familiar from his co-starring roles in the 1979 Neil Simon film “Chapter Two� and as the Sid Caesar-like comic in 1982’s “My Favorite Year,� among others.

They met in 1964. “We had the same manager,� Taylor says. “I was looking for writers and [my manager] said, ‘I think I have a writer that you’re going to have a comedy rapport with,’ and that was Joe. He put his hand out to me. I looked in his eyes and said, ‘This is him.’ �

Taylor and Bologna didn’t end up working together then, but less than a year later they were married--on the Merv Griffin show. It was, they say, an economical option as well as a way to bring two warring camps into neutral territory.

“It was a big thing back then when Italians and Jews married,� Taylor explains. “So my family wasn’t going to come to the wedding, his family wasn’t going to come to the wedding.�

When Griffin offered to host the ceremony in return for the right to broadcast it, Taylor and Bologna took him up on his offer. “Joe and I talked about it, and we said this might be a great way to get our families there,� Taylor says. “It was a great wedding.�

Not long after that, Taylor and Bologna contemplated making their match a professional collaboration as well.

“We went to a play one night after we got married,� Bologna says. “It was one of those plays where you say, ‘If one day when I get up in the morning and I’m shaving and I just jot something down, it’s got to be better than this.’ �

Taylor: “We said, ‘That [play] isn’t funny.�

Bologna: “I said, ‘I don’t know if we can write, but why don’t we just share our observations, feelings and thoughts. . . .’ And that’s how we came to write our first play.�

Taylor: “ ‘Lovers and Other Strangers. . . .’

“Then it was made into a movie and nominated for an Academy Award, and we said, ‘Hey! This is easy!’ You write a play. You do a movie. You get nominated. We like show business! No one told us it was hard.�

They satirized their own courtship in the 1971 film “Made for Each Other� and have continued to write plays, between film and TV projects, ever since.

By now, of course, their differences have become part and parcel of their craft. “I look at the macrocosm, she looks at the microcosm,� Bologna says. “So when we write together, my tendency is to look at the whole picture. Her tendency is to get into the speeches.�

It’s really a matter, Taylor says, of “masculine and feminine� sensibilities. “I’m really interested in feelings, and he’s very interested in plot,� she explains. “He writes story, structure and plot, and I write crazy people with feelings and passion and dialogue.�

To put it another way: “I’m a ‘let’s go’; she’s a ‘let’s stay,’ � Bologna says.

“Or, he’s a ‘let’s throw out’ and I’m a ‘let’s keep,’ � Taylor says.

“My first reaction to everything is no. Her first reaction to everything is yes,� Bologna says. “I’m farsighted and she’s nearsighted.�

A cockeyed match perhaps, but one made in comedy heaven.

* “Bermuda Avenue Triangle,� Canon Theatre, 205 N. Canon Drive, Beverly Hills. Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2:30 p.m. $36-$40. Through March 31. (310) 859-2830 or (213) 365-3500.