Fallen Angels Broadway Reviews

Byrne and O’Hara prove themselves brilliant physical comedians, whether sliding down stairs, falling over chairs, or guzzling champagne. When Mark Consuelos finally arrives as the highly anticipated French lover Maurice Duclos, the splash of celebr...

Byrne and O’Hara prove themselves brilliant physical comedians, whether sliding down stairs, falling over chairs, or guzzling champagne. When Mark Consuelos finally arrives as the highly anticipated French lover Maurice Duclos, the splash of celebrity feels wholly unnecessary (despite him living up to the women’s description: “Those eyes … those hands … and teeth … and legs!”)

If Noel Coward’s play can be credited as proto-feminist for depicting women with sexual desire that is just as strong as a man’s (certainly stronger than their husbands’), could director Scott Ellis be trying to prove that graceful, beautiful...

If Noel Coward’s play can be credited as proto-feminist for depicting women with sexual desire that is just as strong as a man’s (certainly stronger than their husbands’), could director Scott Ellis be trying to prove that graceful, beautiful actresses are equal to any male clown in their ability to plotz?

Even a single drunk scene can grow tiresome quickly, so an entire play built around an extended display of upper-middle-class BFFs behaving badly could easily become extremely irritating. Thankfully, O’Hara and Byrne are so wonderful—and so wonde...

Even a single drunk scene can grow tiresome quickly, so an entire play built around an extended display of upper-middle-class BFFs behaving badly could easily become extremely irritating. Thankfully, O’Hara and Byrne are so wonderful—and so wonderfully matched—that there’s no getting annoyed with either of them. They can take out the audience with one look, the flick of a cigarette lighter, or the toss of a scarf (Byrne using her napkin as a neckerchief to accessorize Jeff Mahshie’s stunning green dinner dress, a wonderful nod to Keira Knightley’s Atonement gown, is a stroke of genius). And there’s a hysterical bit involving O’Hara, the telephone, an armchair, and a very slow head-first dive that must be seen to be believed.

Director Scott Ellis tends to rush the pace of the comedy, when taking a bit more leisure about it might make Coward’s already clipped dialogue easier to appreciate. His staging takes surprisingly little advantage of the expansive set and its delux...

Director Scott Ellis tends to rush the pace of the comedy, when taking a bit more leisure about it might make Coward’s already clipped dialogue easier to appreciate. His staging takes surprisingly little advantage of the expansive set and its deluxe furnishings. The program notes that Coward revised the play in 1958 following its revival on Broadway, although this intermission-free version appears to bear other fingerprints as well.

Under the sure direction of Scott Ellis and given a lush, gorgeous staging by Roundabout and some of Broadway’s best designers – David Rockwell, sets, sumptuous; Jeff Mahshie, costumes, deep oppulance; Kenneth Posner, ever-so-flattering lighting ...

Under the sure direction of Scott Ellis and given a lush, gorgeous staging by Roundabout and some of Broadway’s best designers – David Rockwell, sets, sumptuous; Jeff Mahshie, costumes, deep oppulance; Kenneth Posner, ever-so-flattering lighting – Fallen Angels is a most welcome springtime treat, a smart, breezy entry in Broadway’s chaotically busy pre-Tony season.

Coward is no Beckett. Unlike Godot, there really is a suave Frenchman who wooed Julia and Jane (in Pisa and Venice, respectively) and arrives in the play’s rushed final scene. But when Mark Consuelos turns up as Maurice Duclos, it’s a bit of a le...

Coward is no Beckett. Unlike Godot, there really is a suave Frenchman who wooed Julia and Jane (in Pisa and Venice, respectively) and arrives in the play’s rushed final scene. But when Mark Consuelos turns up as Maurice Duclos, it’s a bit of a letdown — and not just because the daytime TV veteran speaks in a voice that’s barely European much less French. The character is basically a human MacGufffin meant to generate friction among the four primary players in Coward’s romantic farce. The revelation of the heroines’ premarital sex lives — once so shocking that London censors initially banned the play — now seems rather quaint. Still, Ellis and his cast have ginned up enough boozy shenanigans in Fallen Angels that the lingering buzz carries you through the show’s duller and more dated sections.

Broadway has not seen a more delectable diversion this season than the bubbly revival of Noël Coward’s early comedy “Fallen Angels,” starring the glittering duo of Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara. They portray a pair of well-heeled, smashingly w...

Broadway has not seen a more delectable diversion this season than the bubbly revival of Noël Coward’s early comedy “Fallen Angels,” starring the glittering duo of Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara. They portray a pair of well-heeled, smashingly well-dressed and vaguely dissatisfied wives hoping (or fearing?) to rekindle the romantic excitements of their youth when a man from their past—a French lothario with whom they both had brief affairs before their marriages—gets in touch many years after their liaisons ended.

Most importantly, this 90-minute production (the perfect length for a comedy) has mastered the right pace. It starts fast, then puts on the brakes for the fun of Byrne and O’Hara drinking themselves silly and salty. Patience is afforded when it com...

Most importantly, this 90-minute production (the perfect length for a comedy) has mastered the right pace. It starts fast, then puts on the brakes for the fun of Byrne and O’Hara drinking themselves silly and salty. Patience is afforded when it comes to the serious business of vamping, pratfalls, funny hairdos. Ellis’s staging leans into the frivolity, but its real feat to put on a tight entertainment that somehow has the looseness of a hangout comedy.

If only the 90 minutes that preceded that killer capper had more fizz to them. O’Hara and Byrne may be bleeding for every laugh, but you can’t ignore the fact that “Fallen Angels” is one of Coward’s lesser works. The play proves that even i...

If only the 90 minutes that preceded that killer capper had more fizz to them. O’Hara and Byrne may be bleeding for every laugh, but you can’t ignore the fact that “Fallen Angels” is one of Coward’s lesser works. The play proves that even in his twenties, he was already perfecting his transgressive wit.

Even at the very un-Coward-like length of 90 minutes, this production of “Fallen Angels” under the direction of Scott Ellis takes about half an hour to light any real comic fire in what was once the play’s first act. When it finally does ignite...

Even at the very un-Coward-like length of 90 minutes, this production of “Fallen Angels” under the direction of Scott Ellis takes about half an hour to light any real comic fire in what was once the play’s first act. When it finally does ignite, Rose Byrne’s Jane and Kelli O’Hara’s Julia don’t delight by what they say. Instead, they have to get sh*t-faced drunk.

Scott Ellis’s zippy and graceful staging on David Rockwell’s Art Deco-tastic set goes down easy as box wine, even if the comic fireworks are muted. An all-English cast would nail accents and tone better. Fallen Angels runs but 90 minutes and whil...

Scott Ellis’s zippy and graceful staging on David Rockwell’s Art Deco-tastic set goes down easy as box wine, even if the comic fireworks are muted. An all-English cast would nail accents and tone better. Fallen Angels runs but 90 minutes and while you wish for bigger laughs and more assured style, it’ll be over before you feel like sneaking out.

O’Hara swishes Coward’s highborn language like a favorite chablis; the actor is an ascendant grande dame of period pieces from television (The Gilded Age) to opera (The Hours) to musical theater (Days of Wine and Roses). What’s surprising is ho...

O’Hara swishes Coward’s highborn language like a favorite chablis; the actor is an ascendant grande dame of period pieces from television (The Gilded Age) to opera (The Hours) to musical theater (Days of Wine and Roses). What’s surprising is how broadly she can go at physical comedy, falling over furniture and going full Mommie Dearest the morning after. As always, she’s excellent. It is similarly never wise to bet against Byrne. In her second Broadway outing, she takes a bit longer to settle into her character. But as she’s displayed throughout her career, right up to her first Oscar nomination this year in the psychodrama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, she is a constantly surprising actor. She truly shines once her Jane is nice and toasted, sneaking sips from Julia’s glass and managing to proclaim “how dare you!” in a haughty, one-syllable hiss.

Well-written, well-acted, escalating fizz can wind up facing a challenge: What happens when it’s time to finish off the bottle and head home? In its dénouement, Fallen Angels doesn’t reach the sublime heights of, say, The Importance of Being Ear...

Well-written, well-acted, escalating fizz can wind up facing a challenge: What happens when it’s time to finish off the bottle and head home? In its dénouement, Fallen Angels doesn’t reach the sublime heights of, say, The Importance of Being Earnest — even Coward couldn’t quite figure out how to keep a promise as talked-up as Maurice Duclos without an anticlimax. Ellis doesn’t solve the riddle, either. Under his direction, the show’s delicious froth flattens in its final scenes.

An overarching problem of director Scott Ellis’ production is its attempts to spin every moment into comic gold quite clunkily, when actors should be zipping through the setup. The hubbys are the main offenders, taking their uppercrust puffery to a...

An overarching problem of director Scott Ellis’ production is its attempts to spin every moment into comic gold quite clunkily, when actors should be zipping through the setup. The hubbys are the main offenders, taking their uppercrust puffery to an obnoxious extreme. And because of their cartoonishness, we never believe they so much as live with these women, let alone are married to them.