Review: PRESENT LAUGHTER dazzles at MAIN STREET THEATER

PRESENT LAUGHTER gets a stunning revival at Main Street Theater with a returning director and leading man remounting the show with a power packed cast.  The Noel Coward classic is always an “audience pleaser” from its inception in the early forties, and this new production is like great champagne with caviar on the side.  You don’t get more “sophisticated comedy” than this one, and it all holds up gorgeously.  Even though Joel Sandel debuted his role as Garry Essendine back in 2008, he still slips into his dressing gown with a wit and grace that only one of Houston’s best leading men can provide.  Fifteen years later, everyone still wants him.  

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Noel Coward wrote this play for himself, constructing a farcical tale of an incredibly handsome and talented actor that everyone clamors over for two hours straight.  An ex-wife, an ingénue, the wife of a business partner, and even a starstruck male fan circle around the character with absolute adoration and passion.  All the while Garry Essendine moans and wails about being “too old” and “too tired” to keep all of this up.  Oh it is sheer torture being loved!  And that is the premise of this “divorce comedy” which features verbal volleying and coy word play throughout.  In the end it is much ado about nothing, and nobody really learns anything.  But do we care?  No, we are here for the wit and the smiles.    

Leading man Joel Sandel seems born to play this part, and probably even more so with a decade and a half heaped on him.  He plays Noel Coward’s material with an uncanny ease, as if he emerged from the womb with a cocktail and a cigarette.  He goes over the top without going over the top if that makes any kind of sense whatsoever.  Garry is a large character with a tendency to overact in any given situation.  Joel plays that honestly without a hint of irony or a tongue in cheek.  PRESENT LAUGHTER lives or dies with the actor in this part, and here it flourishes with Joel.  Add to all of this, I am convinced this man hardly ever ages. There is a painting somewhere (possibly in the scene shop) that is aging poorly for the actor in some way somehow.    

Main Street Theater has wisely brought back director Claire Hart-Polumbo as well as the leading man from their 2008 hit version of this one.  The direction is assured with the play gliding by with a finesse that could only be brought on by someone who is sure of the material.  And this time around the deck is stacked with incredible actors in every single role.  Elizabeth Marshall Black is comedically stern and proper as the secretary.  She’s one of Houston’s best comediennes, and this all seems second nature to her throughout.  The stunning Patricia Duran plays the ex-wife, and she does so with so much charisma that she begins to be on equal ground as Garry for being charming and a mess simultaneously.  Alyssa Marek plays the doe-eyed young actress who is falling for Garry, and is wholly believable in an innocent way.  Amanda Martinez is the wife of a business partner who tries to seduce Garry into an unlikely affair, and one can see why he would be tempted.  She is all femme fatale to perfection. Brock Hatton is the male fan, and he turns the homosexual subtext straight into TEXT in his hysterical take on Roland Maule.    

Also along for the ride is Deborah Hope who does double duty as a grumpy chain-smoking maid and a doting wealthy aunt.  She is a comic genius in both parts.  Yet I always wonder how audiences are to buy that Deborah is not glamorous and stunning even when they try to make her more dowdy or domestic.  I would love to see a revival in another 15 years where she gets to play Joel’s ex-wife.  David Harlan and Kregg Daily are perfect comic foils as the partners running Garry’s business.  David doubles as an affable man-servant as well.  My only issue with the cast is that this ensemble could do so much more than what the script demands.  The play is designed to showcase the leading man, but this troupe could carry anything.  They are an embarrassment of riches. The trick with Coward is to make the lines sing, and here we have a capable symphony creating the piece for you. 

Technically things look great.  I am not sure why the decade for the setting of the show was moved into the ‘50s, but it sure all looks very neat and well conceived.  There are a couple of lines that make the time shift awkward, but the Mid-Century Modern furniture and props are all fabulously on point.  I like to imagine this is what Joel Sandel’s real-life apartment would look like, and I hope to never be disillusioned of this fantasy.  But props to James V. Thomas and Rodney Walsworth for constructing such a dream.  It suits the play in both style and fucntion.    

This one is a no-brainer, a must-see, and a celebration.  It’s a perfect production of a classic Coward script that has been beloved for decades.  You can not go wrong with Joel Sandel and Claire Hart-Palumbo guiding a cast of Houston’s strongest players through a proven warhorse of a play.  Cheers to everyone coming back in fifteen years to do it all over again! 

PRESENT LAUGHTER runs through August 13th at Main Street Theater in the Rice Village.  The show is in three acts, and has two ten-minute intermissions.  The show is selling out in its early run, so plan ahead and secure tickets through the link below. You can also call the box office of the theater at (713) 524-6706.  

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