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.
An A-list ensemble, led by beloved comedienne Andrea Martin, takes classic scenes and amps them up. So here, an actor doesn't just fall down a flight of steps -- he flips over a banister with an acrobatic flourish, breaking the handrail right off its balusters. It's the sort of commitment that leaves audiences concerned for the well-being of a performer...Wonderful here, Martin conveys that Dotty Otley, leading lady of the show-within-a-show, is essentially a highly paid showgirl talking down to her character. Torturing every vowel ('saw-dines'), Martin puts her stamp on the script with wiggly-fingered antics...Of Hilty, as inept ingenue Brooke Ashton, let's note: You have to be an excellent actress to play a bad actress...'Noises Off' takes its time building to full-fledged nuttiness. But director Jeremy Herrin ('Wolf Hall') shrewdly pulls off 'Off' with one intermission, combining the traditional second and third acts into one. Things here just flow.
Noises Off is a precision-timed laugh machine, and director Jeremy Herrin's ensemble is peppered with some of New York's finest comic actors. So why did I chuckle so little-perhaps even less than at the weak 2001 mounting?...There's the culture gap: Good as our American troupers are, they don't quite get the jauntily sleazy vibe of English sex comedy...If nothing else, this should be a retro hoot and a chance for nine actors to show off their slapstick and goofing. How can anyone not cackle at master-of-squirm Jeremy Shamos slipping-for what seems an entire minute-in sardine juice? Okay, that one got me. So, fleetingly, did other elements: Megan Hilton's blond ditz, giving superbly wooden-chirpy line readings; Rob McClure's mousy, frantic understudy/stagehand; and Andrea Martin, going full zany and threatening a cheating lover with an ax. But these are only sparks, not a blaze.
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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