Tony Award-winner Andrea Martin (Pippin, Young Frankenstein) makes her Roundabout Theatre Company debut in a rip-roaring new production of Michael Frayn's (Copenhagen) beloved comedy Noises Off!
The Opening Night performance of the farce Nothing On is just hours away, and as the cast stumbles through their final dress rehearsal, things couldn't be going any worse. With lines being forgotten, love triangles unraveling and sardines flying everywhere, it's complete pandemonium- and we haven't even reached intermission! Can the cast pull their act together on the stage even if they can't behind the scenes?
Full of shocking surprises and gut-busting humor, Noises Off is the classic show-within-a-show that "voyages to the outer limits of hilarity" (The New York Times). Two-time Olivier Award nominee Jeremy Herrin (This House) directs.
Today's report -- and it's a happy one -- is that this Noises Off is splendidly delirious fun. Director Jeremy Herrin...turns up with a perfectly-calibrated production which brings full value to Frayn's text while adding layers of visual humor that leaves audiences hooting with delight. The Roundabout...has in this case been content to restrict itself to talented stage actors who have heretofore displayed comic flair. This works out capitally well, and results in one of the finest Roundabout outings since Twelve Angry Men...Martin, naturally, leads the cast; as always, she need merely lift her eyebrow to garner laughs...Megan Hilty...plays Brooke, the vapid actress who continually loses her dress and her contact lens. This has always been a show-stopping role...and Hilty succeeds handily, comporting herself like a perpetually posing beauty queen-turned-game show hostess trying to get us to choose the prize behind Curtain #3.
What makes the show so enjoyably delirious -- at least when it's staged well -- is the anarchic nature of Frayn's imagination; just when things can't possibly get any worse for the actors onstage, ten more disastrous things happen, usually all at once. The good news is that the new Roundabout Theatre Company revival is directed (by Jeremy Herrin) and performed with tremendous speed, spirit and affection. The actors, especially Megan Hilty (TV's 'Smash), as the bombshell ingenue who needs to mouth the words of her co-stars in order to keep up with the text, and Andrea Martin, as the alternately matriarchal and diva-ish star of 'Nothin On,' are completely attuned to the helium rhythms of Frayn's writing. The brilliantly staged second act, in which the backstage actors attempt to remain silent as chaos erupts onstage, is a tour de force; a ballet of incongruity and incompetence.
1983 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2001 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Broadway |
2015 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Production Broadway |
2019 | West End |
West End Production West End |
2023 | West End |
West End |
2023 | West End |
West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Jeremy Herrin |
2016 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Featured Actress in a Play | Megan Hilty |
2016 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Noises Off |
2016 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Christopher Cronin |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | David Furr |
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Megan Hilty |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Megan Hilty |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Michael Frayn |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Michael Krass |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | David Furr |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Megan Hilty |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Andrea Martin |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Noises Off |
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