From the late 17th Century on, comedy in Britain often is marked by its glittering wit spoken by sophisticated characters whose many faults are willingly forgiven because additionally, they are attractive; like today, we frequently overlook the flaws and questionable morality of those people we admire because of some appealing trait, so long as they look good and speak well.
Playwright Noel Coward was a prolific master of the comic form, and often wrote characters into his plays that he would perform. One of these is Present Laughter [1939], in which the central character is Garry Essendine, an approaching middle-aged narcissistic actor famous for roles in drawing room comedies, who is set to embark on an overseas tour to resuscitate his career despite his angst about getting old.
Director Melissa Strickland's Way Off Broadway Theatre production of Present Laughter features Josh Williams as Garry Essendine, accompanied by a coterie of local theatre veterans and neophytes. It's two-and-a-half-hour running time could be significantly shorter through more efficient scene-changes and a faster more energetic pace, but the production does have its rewards.
There's a lot to keep track of here: at the outset, Garry is in a pickle when ingenue Daphnee Singleton [Antilea Hamilton], who has misplaced her latchkey [more of this later] stayed the night in Garry's spare room and believes Garry is attracted to her; the butler Fred [Nick Cutrell] is unflappable regarding his master's escapades; the cook, Miss Erickson [Blair Berry] reluctantly provides what food and drink she can muster; Garry's long-time secretary Monica [Ashlee Lassiter] efficiently runs Garry's calendar and easily bends to increasingly bizarre demands of the job; Garry's ex-wife Liz [Alex Rikerd], who knows and loves him better that anyone, is neither surprised or annoyed by any of the many challenges to getting Garry away on his trip and away from potential obstacles to it; producer-partners and friends Hugo Lypiatt [Russ Tipton] and Morris Dixon [Seth Maggard] try to assuage Garry's overcharged ego while maneuvering the business aspects of the tour; an avant grade playwright named Maule [Greydon Furstender (sp?)] stalks Garry after he has been mistakenlyinvited for an interview; and, oh yes, Morris is secretly in love with Hugo's wife Joanna [Danielle Newton], who makes a play for Garry when she first appears in Act II, claiming like Daphnee in Act I, that she had misplaced her latchkey and needed a place to stay.
Much to unravel, and there are rewards in this production: we can enjoy the plot's complexities and delight in the verily methods each character employs to get his or her way; we laugh at the numerous running gags about latchkeys, dressing gowns, over-acting, and the use of code words to get one out of scrapes; we can giggle at Mr. Williams's intentionally exaggerated "acting"; we can get delight from Coward's witty dialogue, especially when it is expertly delivered by the likes of Ms. Rikerd, Mr. Williams, and Ms. Newton.
