Noises Off

In what might be the most anticipated production of the season, Roundabout's 50th Anniversary, Noises Off hits the boards this week at the American Airlines Theatre.

I saw the last NYC incarnation of this gem 14 years ago - Click Here - with Peter Gallagher, Patti Lupone, Katie Finneran, TR Knight, Faith Prince, and Edward Hibbert.  Needless to say I have fond and vivid memories of the hilarity that ensued.  Of course when I saw the show for the first time I had no idea what was going to happen - this time around, I sort of knew what was going to play out.

This time around, the indomitable Andrea Martin (Dotty) brought her physical comedy to the stage.  Campbell Scott (Lloyd Dallas), tackles the prickly and frustrated director. David Furr (Garry Lejeune), Megan Hilty (Brooke Ashton), Kate Jennings Grant (Belinda Blair), and Jeremy Shamos (Frederick Fellows) tackle the interlopers.  Tracy Chimo (Poppy Norton-Taylor) and Rob McClure (Tim Allgood) tackle the stage crew roles and Daniel Davis (Selsdon) is the bungling alcoholic burglar.

Anyone who knows anything about Nothing On (the play within the play) knows it is a physical comedy inside the physical comedy Noises Off - Three progressively "worse" acts repeated with disastrously funny consequences.  Timing is more than half the battle and tuning the characters just right is the rest.  I'd say they did a great job at the first part - the timing and physicality was nifty. The set (Derek McLane) was quite literally exactly what I remembered it to be - as if they pulled it out of storage.  What the production lacked, I thought, was a sense of mad-cap pace and hilarity.  It was almost very deliberate and plodding.  Certainly Ms. Martin had moments of glory - mostly in Act I as she labored over the sardines and later when she got tangled in the phone cord.  I remember TR Knight having a bigger part than Mr. McClure - and I don't know why.   Ms. Hilty delivered those stilted and quite literally memorized lines perfectly - and by perfectly I mean at just about the most incorrect time and always mugging to the audience like her character is supposed to.   This time around Mr. Scott walked around the entire theater including the mezzanine with his booming director's voice and I don't remember Mr. Gallagher doing the same except for right down front.  There were plenty of stars in this production although none of them shone overly brightly.  There was plenty of talent and great timing in this production, but nothing transported me.  That could be a bit of the 2nd time around syndrome, or it just might possibly be that the production seemed a bit more farcical and deliberately physical than it needed to be.

In the end, it doesn't much matter.  The family behind me had no idea what was going to happen and half my fun was listening to their reactions in Act 2.  I enjoyed this production but not quite as much as I enjoyed my first one.

The Importance of Being Earnest

The Roundabout Theatre Company may have an occasional flop (at least one per season, by recent calculations), but their current production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is certainly not in that category.  Esteemed stage actor, Brian Bedford, directs a superb cast at the same time starring in this 3 act romp.  Earnest is one of Wilde's timeless works and this production dishes up barrels of laughs and glamorous sets - a thoroughly entertaining evening in the theatre all around.

One cannot even say that Bedford, playing the role of Lady Bracknell in drag, stole the show.  The entire cast around him never missed a beat and elevated the pedestal upon which Lady Bracknell could perch.  David Furr (John Worthing) and Santino Fontana (Algernon Moncrieff)  - Wilde's two Earnests  - have impeccable comedic timing, dashing good looks, and abundance of energy.  Charlotte Parry (Cecily) and Sara Topham (Gwendolyn) are smartly coquettish and irresistibly innocent as the ladies who fall for their Earnests.  Supporting these two fine couples are the delightful Dana Ivey (Miss Prism) and the charming Paxton Whitehead (Reverend Chasuble). 

Wilde's writing is a good as it gets - and the tale told is one that is timeless.  Comparisons to the 2002 movie are likely to be made by some - but the stage version is still tops in my book.   This comedy of manners is a timeless tale that is is looking to have a long run into the summer at the American Airlines Theater. Get your tickets today.  You might want to use your real name or you might not be able to pick them up.

Cymbeline

Late in his life, William Shakespeare started writing works for indoor performance with "modern" stages. Well, i think he also lost his touch a bit with this one. At Lincoln Center this season at the Vivian Beaumont Theater he seemed to throw in everything in his bag of tricks - - an evil woman marries the king just to get her son to be next in line to the throne - an old man reveals that he stole the king's two sons years ago - and those two sons (um, gorgeous!) saved the kingdom - - the king's daughter (Imogen) takes a vow of celibacy since he won't let her be with the man she married because he's a commoner - - this very same man is approached by this hunky man (shirt off in the baths was a nice touch) who bet him he could get his still wife to betray him and let him, shall we say, bang her - - he in turn tricks the woman and does not get in her pants, but steals her ring and watches her sleep -- so he tells the husband he won - which causes the husband to cast her off and hate her.... and on... and on... and on... there is a war with the Romans... poison potions... battles in the woods.... death... and that's only act I. Act II rounded out the performance in just about 3 hours. Oh brother!

Unremarkable performances by Felicia Rachad as the queen and John Cullum as the king (he's lost under all the King's Robes). Michael Ceveris (deceived commoner husband) and John Pankow (his devoted man-servant) hold the stage, but the story deals them a raw deal. Martha Plimpton, last seen in another LCT production (The Coast of Utopia) gave a valiant effort in a touch, gender-bending role.

Who knew Shakespeare wrote for As the World Turns?! Do me a favor - stick to Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar.