If you are of a certain age, the name Gilda Radner probably evokes a lot of emotions.

Back in 1975, she and six other comedians transformed television as the Not Ready for Prime Time Players on "Saturday Night Live."

And Radner was a standout among standouts, with such regular characters as Emily Litella, Baba Wawa and Roseanne Roseannadanna implanting themselves in the culture.

If you weren't around back in the 1970s, it's hard to realize what an impact "Saturday Night Live" had and how it changed comedy and TV.

"Bunny, Bunny: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Romantic Comedy," which opens Friday at Gamut Classic Theatre in Harrisburg, is a look back at those halcyon days.

The play is by Alan Zweibel, one of the original writers for Saturday Night Live, who helped create Roseanne Roseannadanna and Emily Litella.

"He meets Gilda and they become friends," explains J. Clark Nicholson, Gamut's artistic director who is directing "Bunny, Bunny." "He falls in love with her, but it didn't work out. Gilda really wanted to be friends. She always lived in fear that romantic relationships would end. She was quite earnest about it. She didn't want romance to get in the way."

Their friendship did thrive through their years together with "Saturday Night Live," their marriages and career moves. (Zweibel worked with Monty Python and Gary Shandling, among others.)

But in 1989, at age 42, Radner died of ovarian cancer.

The show is both humorous and heartbreaking as it follows their relationship through the years.

"It's a map of their friendship but also the background of that time and the way things were," Nicholson says.

Such events as the murder of John Lennon (Radner lived in the same apartment building where Lennon was shot), the hostage crisis and the phenomenon that was Studio 54 are explored.

"The show is written in a 'Saturday Night Live' format," explains Christina Closs, who is playing Radner. "It's very much like one sketch going into another."

And even when Radner and Zweibel (played by Randy Hodson) are dealing with serious situations, humor makes its way in.

"Gilda will bring up a serious concern and he'll make a joke and she'd say, 'This is serious,' but then a few sentences later, she'd make a joke," Closs says. "Humor diffuses the tension. They are comedians, but also human beings."

The play incorporates some actual sketches into the show. For Closs, the tough part is playing the real woman, not her over-the-top characters.

"It's incredibly exciting and mildly terrifying playing Gilda," she says. "She is a great character, but people have definite ideas about her."

Closs did her research, reading Radner's autobiography, "It's Always Something" (a famous tagline from Roseanne Rosannadanna) and watching her performance on the show.

One of the things she noticed was how much Radner smiled.

But Radner had a complicated relationship with fame.

"She constantly needed reassurance," Closs says. "Her reason for being a performer was that she was looking for that love and affection. She talks about her need to get out there and get people to like her."

But sometimes fans could be frustrating.

In one scene, she and Zweibel are at a New York Knicks game and fans begin making random comments about her. Soon, Radner is asking Zweibel to not call her Gilda in public, concerned that people will recognize her.

Those fans at the basketball game-- all 17 of them -- are played by the third member of the cast, David Ramon Zayas.

In fact, Zayas plays about 40 characters in all, from an Indian cab driver to Andy Warhol to Gilda's good friend from childhood to a 65-year-old janitor.

"I don't have to delve into the emotional depths that Christina and Randy do," Zayas says. "Most of my characters are humorous."

But running through "Bunny, Bunny" is the reality that Radner will die at 42.

"The last quarter or so of the play is about when she is ill and her reaction to it," Closs says. "But it is really about the entirety of their relationshop. It's not a play about cancer. Gilda wouldn't want it to be."

"Bunny Bunny: Gilda Radner, A Sort of Love Story"

Opens Fri. Cont. through Feb. 5

Fri. and Sat. 7:30 p.m.; Sun. 2:30 p.m.

$27 adults, $17 students and seniors

Gamut Classic Theatre

605 Strawberry Square, Harrisburg

238-4111. www.gamutplays.org