Photo by Paul Ruffolo
Noël Coward’s 1925 comedy Fallen Angels gracefully minces across the stage of the Broadway Theatre Center in the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s production of the classic. Kay Allmand and Beth Mulkerron exhibit warmth and poise as wealthy married women plagued by the imminent arrival of an old French lover with whom both had been quite intimate.
Allmand and Mulkerron pleasantly rest, fidget and fuss at the center of the ensemble. There’s a crisis of morality going on as both women are caught between duty to their marriages and the carnal desires brought about by the suggestion of an old love. Director C. Michael Wright does a respectable job of helping maintain a complex and textured joviality between the two leads throughout the entire play leading up to intermission. This is a tremendous accomplishment as we are essentially watching a couple of wealthy women get drunk. Wright, Allmand and Mulkerron make it fun.
Molly Rhode is an immensely welcome distraction in the role of the maid, Saunders. She’s endlessly charming around the edges of the action as someone frightfully more interesting than the two characters the comedy spends far too much of its time with. All too often, we are left to wonder what edifyingly fascinating things Saunders must be up to while the two women onstage agonize over the impending arrival of the French god of love they so adore. Thankfully, things pick up after intermission as the sharply comic pair of Rick Pendzich and Chase Stoeger add depth and balance to the ensemble while Coward satisfyingly wraps things up.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Through May 1 at the Broadway Theatre Center. For tickets, call 414-291-7800 or visit milwaukeechambertheatre.com.
