This stereotype is perpetuated when a family of American tourists is mistaken for spies and takes refuge in an American embassy somewhere behind the Iron Curtain in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water. Walter and Marion Hollander (Robert L. Brunner and Carrie-Ellen Zappa) are vacationing in Europe with their daughter Susan (Raia Jane Hirsch) when Walter accidentally tries to photograph top-secret weapons in a restricted area of a Communist country during the Cold War. Naturally, the government suspects espionage and chases them to the embassy where Axel Magee (Mark Helphinstine), the ambassador's failure of a son, has been left in charge. It's up to him to find a way for the Hollanders to get home.

With a contrived plot and dated jokes, only the actors could have saved the show. Unfortunately, the performances weren't all that hot either. Several times lines were mumbled indistinctly, and the Eastern European accents in particular seemed to be mixed with some other dialect.

Brunner and Zappa played believable "ugly Americans." Their antics were like something out of a sitcom, with Zappa thinking she was Fran Drescher stuck in an episode of The Brady Bunch. But at least they made me laugh. Granted, lots of people were laughing during a good part of the show. However, I could also count the number of audience members under age 60 on one hand. The older set would have been the Hollanders' peers in 1967, when the action took place.

For those who don't even remember the Cold War, Don't Drink the Water just isn't funny.

DON'T DRINK THE WATER will be performed on board the Showboat Majestic through Sunday.