Breathtakingly acceptable.
Dazzlingly competent.
Stunningly satisfactory.
It's difficult to come up with the right words sometimes. On my way out of the show Friday night, I ran into an actor who is in rehearsals for a kind of an offbeat pseudo-holiday show. He'd asked me what I'd seen. I told him I'd just seen Noises Off with the Rep. And he said he loved the show and asked me how it was. And I told him that it was Noises Off.
It's strange--Michael Frayn's breakneck comedy is as much performance art as it is a narrative comedy. For so many reasons, everything has to be perfectly in synch otherwise the whole thing feels a little off at best or completely incomprehensible at worst. Frayn's script requires precision. And, of course, the Milwaukee Rep provided perfect precision. I would expect that of professional actors. And so it was a satisfying show. And it's a brilliant comedy.
But I didn't laugh.
Weird. I know . . .
Experiences like that reminded me of an interview I'd once seen with a Hollywood actor. He'd said he hated seeing comedies in Hollywood with other people from the film industry because they would never laugh--simply sit there quietly and politely, occasionally nodding at a punchline and softly whispering, "oh, that's funny." And I guess that's kind of the way I'd felt about Noises Off. I'd become one of those industry types.
The challenge, of course, is to surprise with a comedy script that many in the audience are already familiar with. It was "opening" night Friday night and the audiences loved this show. And there was much laughter. And it was fun. But I didn't laugh and it's probably because a good portion of any comedy is the unexpected. And though there are some great performances here, the overall thing was exactly as well-executed as I'd expected it to be. So I liked the show and I though it was funny. But I didn't laugh. Because there's that element of genuine laughter that can be difficult to bring across--genuine laughter needs to be some kind of surprise.
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I love Gerard Neugent and how he's able to get comedy out of the space around his dialogue in the role of Garry. Garry is a man with a generally lazy aphasia that keeps him from really articulating much of anything. Neugent does a brilliant job of bringing comedy out of that.
Laura Gordon is always fun in a comedy and she's in fine form here. The cleverly understated details of her performance make everything work for her. She's not overselling anything the way it would be all too easy to do in an outlandish farce like Frayn's Noises Off.
Deborah Staples plays an actress who will allow nothing to get in the way of a production, sliding around errors and difficulties with as much neurological dexterity as she can muster. The character is more enthusiastic than she has a right to be about what is essentially a lowbrow comedy. Staples is brilliant at bringing this earnestness to the role in what is a thoroughly enjoyable performance.
So it's a fun show, but even when your expectations are high and they're perfectly met, sometimes even a fun show doesn't feel terribly memorable. But it's well worth seeing.
The Rep's production of Nosies Off runs through December 22nd at the Quadracci Powerhouse Theatre.
