Ernest In Love: A Wilde Affair

I'm sure I'm not alone in considering The Importance Of Being Ernest to be the funniest play the English language has every produced.  Oscar Wilde's comedy of manners skewering the courtship habits favored by polite society is loaded with quotable observations ("In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.") and plain old bellylaughs ("To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.").

Wilde's story of Algernon, a wealthy bachelor who invents a sick friend in order to gracefully get out of boring social engagements, his friend Jack, who pretends to have an irresponsible brother in London whose antics give him an excuse to slip away from his country home for a bit of fun, and the two ladies they wish to marry, both of whom have reasons for only wanting to wed a man with the name Ernest, may not seem an obvious choice for a musical because its appeal depends on the anti-sentimentality of farce, a theatrical form that doesn't exactly sing very well.  But Anne Croswell (book and lyrics) and Lee Pockriss (music) gave it a go with the 1960 Off-Broadway musical Ernest In Love, an expanded version of their 1957 hour-long televised musical, Who's Earnest?  Musicals Tonight!, a company that specializes in simple staged readings of forgotten shows that can use another look, has put together a delightful production of this often charming/often awkward adaptation under direct/choreographer Thomas Mills, featuring many fine and funny performances.

Closing after only three months in its initial run (though earning more critical praise than another 1960 Off-Broadway musical, The Fantasticks) Ernest In Love's main problem is that many of its songs, though quite tuneful and pleasant, don't seem especially necessary and fail to enhance the text.  And with much of the book taken from Wilde's original, there's a huge drop in wit whenever characters begin singing.  (You'd need a Noel Coward to really do this one right.)  There's comic potential in a song for the domineering Lady Bracknell called "A Handbag Is Not A Proper Mother" (a reference to Jack being abandoned in a handbag as an infant) but though Deborah Jean Templin plays the role with terrific haughtiness, there is too much repetition and barely any humor in the lyric.  And though the honey-voiced Nick Dalton's Algernon makes for a dashing playboy and Melissa Bohon is giddy and girlish as his new love Cecily, their duet "Lost" seems an obligatory second act ballad having nothing to do with the characters or the show's style.

On the plus side there's an excellent musical scene early on that has a nervous Jack (a boyish and, well, earnest Jack) on one side of the stage fussing over which cravat he should wear on the day he plans to propose to Gwendolen (Lauren Molina who sings beautifully and conveys an intelligent ditziness) while on the other side Gwendolen, fully expecting a proposal, is considering the proper hat for the occasion.  Perhaps the best number is a frisky duet for servants Effie and Lane (utterly charming turns by Katherine McClain and Selby Brown) comparing the structured courtship practices of the upper classes with the earthy improvisation of the masses.

Ernest In Love may have its kinks, but Musicals Tonight!'s production is always entertaining and offers a rare opportunity to see this infrequently produced curio.

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