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The Longacre Theatre
220 West 48th Street
New York
Reviewed by
Brad Hathaway |
Reviewed
August, 2008
Running time 2:45 - one intermission
Price range $36 - $110
Premium seating available for $176 - $251
A delightful romp of a farce given energetic performances
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Click here to buy the script
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If you want a jump start on what is likely to be a hit comedy when it is
first produced here in the Potomac Region, head up to New York right now and
enjoy a superb production of a farce that is bound to make it into the
season of a major house here in the next two or three seasons. Then, when it
does open at a theater near you, you can probably honestly say "oh, it was
better on Broadway." Why? Because of the performance of Mark Rylance, a
London based actor, director and the founding Artistic Director of
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The rest of the cast - including headliners
Christine Baransky and Bradley Whitford - are very very good. But it is hard
to take your eyes off of Rylance when he's working the clowning magic that
so fits the role of an innocent glimpsing his first opportunity to stray
from the straight and narrow. His character seems to be a blend of reticent
Tommy Smothers and quiet Buster Keaton with just a touch of Bill Irwin's
physical humor thrown in for good measure. |
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Storyline: An American expatriate architect in the Paris of the early 1960s
thinks he has the best of all possible worlds because he's figured out how
to balance airline schedules to woo multiple stewardesses without any of
them learning of the others. He's engaged to a fun-loving American who works
TWA's London to New York to San Francisco route, a romantic Italian who flies
Alitalia from Paris to Rome and points beyond and a no-nonsense but gorgeous
German blond sporting Lufthansa's colors. He has no intention of actually
marrying any of them. When a friend from Kansas arrives with staid
middle-class mid-western mores, the architect shows him just how to spice up
his life - until a storm strands all three stewardesses in Paris at the same
time.
The first time this
simple French farce made it to Broadway, the reaction wasn't quite as
positive as that which greeted the current revival. The play had been a hit
in London where it was a few years into what eventually became a seven year
run, but New Yorkers didn't take to it and it closed in less than a month.
That was 1965. Forty-some years later, it is a very different story. A
London revival, with Rylance in the role of the hick who visits his swinging
friend in Paris, was well received. A transfer to Broadway brought Rylance
over but, other than that, an entirely new cast was assembled. It opened to
strong response just in time for the Tony Award round and drew the award for
Best Revival of a Play and Rylance won for Best Leading Actor in a Play.
Christine Baransky plays the role of the playboy's maid
as a French woman with a strong independent streak. Her comedy is as broad as
is Rylance's. She has one tremendously funny lengthy scene in which she takes
a break from her housekeeping duties to enjoy a sleek mini-cigar, but most
of the rest of her performance is a short bit here and a shorter bit there,
providing reactions to the outlandish events in the household. Bradley
Whitford, better known for his television career (West Wing, Studio 60 on
the Sunset Strip) is the architect with three fiancées. He starts off
already a bit hyper and then escalates exponentially as his world begins to
unravel.
The three fiancées are three separate stereotypes, or
more precisely, variations on the same stereotypical theme. To the sixties
image of the sexy servant of the sky that was so concisely captured in the
title "Coffee, Tea or Me?" in Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones' flippant memoir
are added the national stereotypes of American, Italian and German women. It
is enough to keep the humor in high gear, and the trio of actresses who play
the roles under Matthew Warchus' fast paced direction provide precise,
cleanly differentiated characterizations. Potomac region theatergoers can
have a great time on the ride home after seeing this show trying to predict
just how each of these roles will be cast when one of our major companies
get the rights to mount the show here.
Written by Marc Camoletti. Translated by Beverly Cross
and Francis Evans. Original music by Claire Van Kampen. Directed by Matthew
Warchus. Design: Rob Howell (set and costumes) Hugh Vanstone (lights) Simon
Baker (sound). Cast: Christine Baranski, Gina Gershon, Kathryn Hahn, Mary
McCormack, Mark Rylance, Bradley Whitford.
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