Carte Blanche Studio’s latest comedy adds to an already very bustling weekend for theatre. Carte Blanche’s production of the 1997 Ray Cooney farce Out Of Order is one of three shows opening in Milwaukee the weekend of June 17th. A relatively diverse weekend, the third weekend in June plays host to opening night of:
--the modern two-person drama Closet Land with Alchemist Theatre
--Outdoor Shakespeare with the opening weekend of Optimist Theatre’s production of The Tempest in the courtyard at Alverno.
--Carte Blanche’s contemporary Ray Cooney farce set in a hotel.
(As this is also the weekend that I’ll be going to Spring Green for a couple of Shakespeare shows, I’m really happy that Carte Blanche’s Sunday shows are relatively late (6pm,) allowing me an opportunity to see 4 shows that weekend.)
The Carte Blanche farce is one that I’d prefer not to miss. I’ve seen Ray Cooney farces a whole bunch of times before in the past. One hotel-based farce is pretty much indistinguishable from the next, but you don’t go to a show like this for the script. You go to a show like this for the cast and Carte Blanche has a really good cast for the show.
Once again, Clayton Hamburg takes the male lead in a Carte Blanche farce as a politician looking to have an affair with a secretary (played by the beautiful and talented Liz Whitford.) Frequent Carte Blanche actor Adam Zastrow plays the secretary’s husband, who shows-up to add a bit of comic conflict.
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The staff of this particular hotel sounds like a lot of fun as well . . . Michael Keiley, who played the director in Carte Blanche’s production of Noises Off last year picks up a similarly authoritative stage occupation here as the hotel’s manager. And then there’s the bell boy. . . it must be really, really difficult to play a comic bell boy what with all the high- profile actors who have done so on film . . . from Jerry Lewis to Bronson Pinchot to my personal favorite Tim Roth, the comic bellboy has always been an interesting centerpiece to comedies like this. A talented physical comic actor who has also shown a really good affinity for farcical comedy, it’ll be interesting to see what Jordan Gwiazdowski does with the role in Carte Blanche’s latest.
Carte Blanche’s Out Of Order runs June 17th – 27th at the Carte Blanche Studio Theatre.
