Noises Off
6 / 10
Noises Off is a precision-timed laugh machine, and director Jeremy Herrin's ensemble is peppered with some of New York's finest comic actors. So why did I chuckle so little-perhaps even less than at the weak 2001 mounting?...There's the culture gap: Good as our American troupers are, they don't quite get the jauntily sleazy vibe of English sex comedy...If nothing else, this should be a retro hoot and a chance for nine actors to show off their slapstick and goofing. How can anyone not cackle at master-of-squirm Jeremy Shamos slipping-for what seems an entire minute-in sardine juice? Okay, that one got me. So, fleetingly, did other elements: Megan Hilton's blond ditz, giving superbly wooden-chirpy line readings; Rob McClure's mousy, frantic understudy/stagehand; and Andrea Martin, going full zany and threatening a cheating lover with an ax. But these are only sparks, not a blaze.
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