Favorite Comedic Plays
Favorite Comedic Plays
#1Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 10:28amOscar Wilde excluded, what are your three favorite comedic plays?
#2re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 10:30am
Born Yesterday by Garson Kanin, You Can't Take It With You by Kaufman and Hart and Noises Off by Michael Frayn
NYC Visitor and Broadway Fan
Updated On: 5/17/07 at 10:30 AM
#2re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 11:01amNoises Off, The Constant Wife ... and I'd have to think about a third one. It's a drop-off for me after those two
"She sang each word, the angels heard ... They closed her mouth and shipped her south. The woman's done."
#3re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 11:12amNoises Off, Auntie Mame, Arsenic and Old Lace
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
gymdudeva
Broadway Star Joined: 1/29/07
#4re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 11:23amNoises Off; Can't Pay, Won't Pay (maybe it was just a good producition); Dearly Departed
dramaqueen2
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/23/05
#5re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 12:32pm
i second arsenic and old lace. i like noises off too.
and anything durrang.
hear my song; it was made for the time when you don't know where to go, listen to the song that i sing, you'll be fine..
#6re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 1:03pmAS BEES IN HONEY DROWN, THE MAN WHO CAME TO DINNER and NOISES OFF.
"For me, THEATRE is an anticipation, an artistic rush, an emotional banquet, a jubilant appreciation, and an exit hopeful of clearer thought and better worlds."
~ an anonymous traveler with Robert Burns
#7re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 3:09pm
I never really gave it much thought before, but I guess I'm a big George Kaufman fan when it comes to comedies. My TOP THREE are all His:
* You Can't Take It With You
* The Royal Family
* The Man Who Came to Dinner
"To love another person is to see the face of God!"
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#8re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 3:12pm
On the list for me would be:
Noises Off
The Odd Couple
Crimes of the Heart
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#9re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 3:14pm
Noises Off
The Importance of Being Ernest
A Flea in Her Ear
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
gymdudeva
Broadway Star Joined: 1/29/07
#10re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 4:13pmWow, I think we have one play that is a clear winner.....
mlnreplyer
Swing Joined: 5/16/06
#11re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/17/07 at 4:18pm
Private Lives
The Man Who Came to Dinner
Noises Off
#12re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/20/07 at 2:26pm
In the "How could I have forgotten?" category.....
"Moon Over Buffalo", a comedy by Ken Ludwig set in Buffalo, New York.
That one is for the locals!
Love ya!
:)
"To love another person is to see the face of God!"
SondheimFan2
Chorus Member Joined: 5/20/07
#13re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/20/07 at 9:42pmi don't know who wrote this, but caught in the net. i saw it on the west end like 5 years ago and it was HYSTERICAL i've never laughed so hard
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#14re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/20/07 at 10:07pm
WHAT THE BUTLER SAW
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, except for Dogberry, who I've only ever seen one actor make interesting
THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
SondheimFan2
Chorus Member Joined: 5/20/07
#15re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/20/07 at 11:02pmlieutenant of inishmore? i work at a theater in houston and we're doing a production of that next season. i did a scene breakdown of it and was a little grossed out and depressed..until my boss told me it was supposed to be funny. i guess you have to see it in person?
#16re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/20/07 at 11:05pm
LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR
NOISES OFF
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
Newer: THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#17re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/20/07 at 11:19pmMan Who Came To Dinner, Private Lives, Lieutenant of Inishmore
ggersten
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/11/06
#18re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 7:56am
Noises Off
Charley's Aunt
and...and...and...um...Man Who Came to Dinner or Laughter on the 23d Floor or The Convict's Return (Geoff Hoyle's basically one person show about rediscovering old vaudeville routines while his one person show in New York is failing.)
shavens
Swing Joined: 4/30/04
#19re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 8:19am
You Can't Take it With You
Hay Fever
The Foreigner (What a surprising and delightful closing scene!)
#20re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 8:54amNoises Off, Lend Me A Tenor and Twentieth Century!
#21re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 9:35am
As noted, FLEA IN HER EAR and the sorta kinda companion piece HOTEL PARADISO.
Neil Simon's FOOLS.
Most of Aristophanes' work, because you truly have to delve into *why* it's funny -- and once you do, the absurdity and satire sticks with you for a long time.
http://docandraider.com
Roscoe
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#22re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 10:02amYes, THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE is a comedy, maybe the darkest comedy ever. I laughed like I've never laughed in a theatre. Grim bloody and violent and hilarious. One of those disturbing plays that gets funnier and funnier as it gets grimmer and grimmer. It should, of course, be played with the utmost seriousness.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." Thomas Pynchon, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Philip K. Dick
My blog: http://www.roscoewrites.blogspot.com/
#23re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 10:07amI agree with "THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE"!!!!!! Also another play by MacDoungh "THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN" is funny too......though it has dramatic moving sections too.
#24re: Favorite Comedic Plays
Posted: 5/21/07 at 10:14am
Between a couple of the replies above, my favorites have been listed:
NOISES OFF (go figure.)
ARSENIC AND OLD LACE
LAUGHTER ON THE 23RD FLOOR
And just because there are so many good ones, I'll give honorable mention to THE COMPLEAT WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) and FOR WHOM THE SOUTHERN BELLE TOLLS.
