Review: THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST at Thinking Cap Theatre

It's Camp, My Dear, When Earnest Goes Disco

I promise you, the baby in the handbag, the linchpin of Oscar Wilde's classic, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, has never before been revealed surrounded by the shades of John Travolta, Farah Fawcett, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Divine, Warren Beatty and The Village People singing, dancing and posturing under the glittering disco balls of NYC's 1978. Flamboyance? Indeed, with a capital FLA.

Thinking Cap Theatre's Nicole Stodard has adapted Wilde's original and in doing so, not only reduced the running time from three to two hours, she also moved it from 1895 Victorian London to disco driven 1978. And taken each of the fabulous original characters and imbued them with the spirits of the disco celebrities of that time.

Thus, we have Elizabeth Price playing John Worthing as John Travolta might, Clay Cartland as Algernon Moncrieff being played by Warren Beatty, Carey Brianna Hart as Gwendolyn Fairfax under the influence of Donna Summer and Karen Stephens playing Lady Bracknell, as might Diana Ross. Noah Levine plays Farah Fawcett's Cecily Cardew while Johnnie Bowls is Miss Prism, in Divine drag and Jim Gibbons is both Lane and the Rev. Canon Chasuble. Merri, the roller skating car hop is played by Emma Magner.

Confusing? Not a bit. Nicole Stodard's wildly appropriate costuming puts more color than the eye can stand onto Alyiece Moretto's brilliant black and white set.

And the plot, in case you're one of the three people in the Western world who is not au fait with Wilde and Earnest, is a simple affair of playboys with double lives, ladies who love the name Earnest, and a domineering aunt and a misplaced baby.

Make no mistake. This is all camp. And all fun. And the actors revel in it.

Clay Cartland as playboy Algernon Moncrieff is a show all in himself. He's funny doing nothing, but if you watch closely, he's always doing something. Two cigarettes? Sly should be his middle name. His best friend, Elizabeth Price's John Worthing, is an endearing caricature of the leather jacketed, pencil mustached, posing pointing disco prince.

Carey Brianna Hart's winsome innocence as Gwendolyn Moncrieff doesn't last long as she and Noah Levine's brilliantly vacuous Cecily Cardew dance off for Earnest. Hilarious.

Karen Stephens is majestically domineering as Lady Bracknell, highlighted by her disco riff put together by Stephens and Stodard.

And then there's Miss Prism, the proper nanny in the original, played by Johnnie Bowls as a Divine inspired drag queen so over the top that calling him enticingly exotic would be an insult.

Jim Gibbons, pulls dual duty as Lane, Algernon's butler, (check the shoes). As the Rev. Canon Chasuble he swaggers The Village People Policeman's black hat, dark shades, and black chaps over codpiece revealing tiny black shorts. Of course he sports a red heart on a stick stuck in his holster.

Nicole Stodard directed and co-designed the sound with David Hart. Lighting from Preston Bircher and choreography by Kevin Black.

This, as usual with Thinking Cap, is an intriguing show. Obviously played for laughs, what started a little flat at times in the first act became hugely entertaining after the intermission. I laughed out loud, a lot. And that's unusual.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST plays at Thinking Cap Theatre's Vanguard through December 13. 1501 South Andrews Avenue, Ft. Lauderdale. 813-220-1546 http://www.thinkingcaptheatre.com

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