Review: Michael Frayn's Laff-Riot NOISES OFF Is Wild, Frenetic Fun

It's hard to imagine that the British playwright known for twisting American brains with dense political dramas like COPENHAGEN and DEMOCRACY and the darkly sexual and class-conscious BENEFACTORS first arrived on these shores with the gut-basting laff-riot 1983 farce Noises Off.

Michael Frayn's perfectly constructed bit of nonsense, with no shortage of slamming doors and flying sardines, is back in an uproarious new Roundabout revival solidly mounted by Jeremy Herrin, featuring a fantastic ensemble of seasoned stage actors strutting their stuff.

Divided into three scenes, the fun begins at the tech rehearsal of a sexy farce called "Nothing On," that's about to tour. The exasperated director Lloyd (Campbell Scott) is trying to keep his cool while the actors struggle through their paces only hours before opening night. The audience watches them on stage as they trudge their way through the first act and also reveal a sense of the relationships that have developed within the company that no doubt will cause problems later.

The second scene takes place a bit later during the tour, and Derek McLane's set now reveals a backstage view. By now a number of issues have bubbled over, including troubled love affairs, heavy drinking and an actor who wants out. Once the play-within-the-play's action begins, Frayn's script progresses like a silent movie scenario, with the dissatisfied company members mutely acting upon their aggressions off-stage while "Nothing On" still plays out smoothly.

By the third scene, which is once again seen from the set of "Nothing On," it's late in the run and there's simply no keeping the off-stage shenanigans from spilling onstage and making a shambles of the performance. What makes the finale all the more hilarious is that it's up to individual viewers to imagine what must be going on behind the walls.

What gives the play its momentum is the grave seriousness with which each character deals with their lot. The gifted clown Andrea Martin is just darling as Dotty, an actor of cultured tones who plays the screeching cockney maid and can't clear up in her head exactly what her blocking is in regards to moving a plate of sardines.

Megan Hilty bursts onto the stage with air-headed moxie, all dolled up like Jayne Mansfield, and is a scream playing bombshell Brooke as an awful actor who faces front and presents her every line to the audience in between mouthing the lines of her colleagues. Jeremy Shamos is very funny as the good-natured, but nervous wreck Frederick, and has a bit of physical business about regaining his footing that might very well get him nominated for an Astaire Award.

Oddly, Rob McClure, the excellent physical comic who was first noticed by Broadway fans as the star of CHAPLIN, doesn't partake in much of the play's physical hijinks, but is nevertheless swell as the beleaguered stage manager, as is Tracy Chimo as his love-struck assistant, Daniel Davis as the nip-swigging character man, David Furr as the inarticulate leading man who can never quite end a sentence and Kate Jennings Grant as the sensible one trying to keep the ship from sinking.

NOISES OFF is a night of wild, frenetic fun that guarantees more laughs than COPENHAGEN, DEMOCRACY and BENEFACTORS combined.

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