Photo Credit: Paul Ruffolo
Bertie Wooster and his butler, Jeeves, are back again at Milwaukee Chamber Theatre in Jeeves at Sea, the fourth installment of the self-indulgent playboy and his all-knowing steward based on the novels of P.G. Wodehouse. And while this plot is the silliest and most tangled up to date, the fine acting and spot-on comic timing keep this “adventure” from going overboard despite the over-the-top antics.
This go-around finds Bertie and his manservant aboard Lady Stella Vanderley’s yacht moored in a bay off Monte Carlo (so much for the “sea”), basking in the sun and the life of the idle rich. Trouble awaits as Bertie’s friend, Sir Perceval Edward Crumpworth (“Crumpet”), thinks he may have killed a prince, and the hijinks begin. Crumpet pretends to be his long-lost twin to avoid prosecution, Bertie pretends to be a female romance novelist to curry favor, and the audience tries to keep up with all the zany subplots in this production.
Playwright Margaret Raether’s first three adaptations wittily conveyed the dry humor and simple storylines while depicting the hilarious role reversal of master and servant. Jeeves at Sea flounders with jokes that never quite reach the surface, gasping for air amid subterranean plot twists and turns. But it’s great acting and well-paced direction by C. Michael Wright that keeps this Jeeves afloat and a delight to watch. What a pleasure to see that perfect match up yet again of Chris Klopatek as Bertie and Matt Daniels as Jeeves.
Daniels is the perfect Jeeves—funny, yet proper; humble, yet omnipotent—staying the course while chaos abounds. And Klopatek is just as fun to watch with his outwardly confident yet inwardly insecure self, completely reliant on... who else? The real guy in charge. The rest of the cast shores up the zany storylines: Diane Lane (Miss Pilbeam), Kathryn Hausman (Lady Stella), Michael Stebbins (Count Otto) and Josh Krause (“Crumpet’).
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“Is there anything you can’t do, Jeeves?” wonders Bertie of his stoic servant, to which Jeeves replies, “I can’t say, sir.” Always the sly “poker face” on Jeeves. Always a recurring smile on the audiences’ faces. A match well made.
Through Dec. 22 in the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway.
