The French Maid 00/00/0000

Noel Coward may well have been the arbiter of all things regarding propriety , social class, and manners. So it may have come as a shock to some that his witty play PRIVATE LIVES, now playing at Irish Classical Theatre, makes it clear that his upper crust characters certainly  do NOT always behave with the best possible manners. Therein lies the crux of the comedy that audiences love, in part, thanks to the bad behavior of his cast

The play is by Sandy Rustin, Hunter Foster, and Eric Price, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn. Under the wonderful direction of David Fritsch, the Ridgefield Theater Barn successfully put on yet another phenomenal production that combines comedy with murder mystery!

While watching Clue for the millionth time, I managed to cast a cast full of Broadway icons. Because the alleged remake will destroy the iconic original.

The Torrance Theatre Company's production of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST features a live twelve-piece orchestra conducted to perfection by Bradley Hampton, and a cast of 44 actors from all over Southern California, who donate their time and talent to bring high-quality theatrical performances to Torrance and the South Bay. Assisted by a team of backstage wonder workers, from the stage hands to the costume and wig dressers, the cast is brilliantly led by brunette beauty Brianna Liddi as Belle and Christopher Tiernan who brings just the right mix of brutality and humanity to The Beast, highlighted during his Act 1 closing solo a?oeIf I Can't Love Her.'

The director has decided to look at the more giggle-worthy elements of PRIVATE LIVES, and has avoided some of the darker implications of this Noel Coward classic. Audiences should eat this one up like a buttered brioche with coffee the morning after a sordid affair.

Did you know that songs by Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse sound great when performed in a French accent and with an accordion? I certainly didn't, and so imagine my surprise when I walked into the theatre at the Mill at Sonning to find Celia Cruwys-Finnigan doing just that. To say it was an unexpected introduction to a production of Noel Coward's Private Lives would be an understatement.

CLUE is one of the most confusing, crazy, wacky shows I've seen yet. Midland University Performing Arts delivered an evening of laughs with Jonathan Lynn's murder mystery based on the 1985 film of the same name. The film was based on the classic board game Clue, which originated in 1949 under the name 'Cluedo' by Englishman Anthony E. Pratt. CLUE was also adapted as a musical Off Broadway in 1996 by Peter DePietro. You just can't kill this thing.

Three acts, three directors, three approaches to the same play script. Vermont Stage Company's annual season closer allows artists to play and experiment--this year, with Noel Coward's 1930 play Private Lives. Larry Connolly, Chris Caswell and Abbie Tykocki direct the three acts independent of one another with unique casting and directorial conceits.

Whatever your artistic quest may be, from unearthing gem stones or archeological ruins to discovering a lost manuscript of music, there is always an element of nostalgia and new found glee when the item arises. Stage director Fortunato Pezzimenti discovered Arthur Richman's unpublished 1922 script THE AWFUL TRUTH in the New York Public Library for The Performing Arts in 2011. Only briefly produced on Broadway in 1935, the story has been told on 3 occasions on the silver screen.

Somehow, it seems fitting that THE PERFORMERS, the David West Read comedy set in the adult film industry, would make its Columbus debut at the Garden Theatre. Before becoming the home base for the Short North Stage, the theatre did a stint as a burlesque theatre between being movie house and a church.

Candlelight Music Theatre- already the best theatrical value in the state - pulled out all the stops for this captivating production of DISNEY BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

West End star and French actress Violetta Farjeon (aka "Chou") passed away Thursday, July 16, 2015, the Telegraph writes. She was 91.

Following the successful adaptations of Moliere's French farces, this Christmas the Playhouse presents another fresh adaptation of a classic French comedy. Liverpool-born writer Stephen Sharkey has created the hilarious and absurd Sex and the Three Day Week from Georges Feydeau's L'Hotel du Libre Echange. The cast includes Edward Harrison, Natalie Casey, Javier Marzan and Eileen O'Brien and runs from Friday 5 December 2014 to Saturday 10 January 2015.

Live and then love a little more after an enchanting evening at Sturgeon Bay's Third Avenue Playhouse this fall. The world's longest running musical The Fantasticks arrived at the Stage Door Theatre Company on October 1st. After more than 17,000 performances played in approximately 90 countries worldwide since the first production in 1960, The Fantasticks garnered 1991 Tony Award Honors for Theatrical Excellence, and still entrances audiences 60 years later.

In the "intimate" comedy at Sturgeon Bay's "intimate" Third Avenue Playhouse, Stage Door Theatre Company presents Noel Coward's cheeky comedy from the 1930's Private Lives. In one of Coward's most successful plays, two previously married spouses meet on their respective honeymoons with their now younger partners at a French resort after remarrying.

In Don't Dress for Dinner, Circle Theatre of Grand Rapids has created an entertaining, well-crafted bedroom farce featuring brilliant physical comedy and a whirlwind of action that keeps the audience on the edge of their seat from start to finish.

In 1994, the newly formed Disney Theatrical Group opened Disney's Beauty and The Beast on Broadway at the Palace Theater and became the eighth longest running Broadway show, when it ultimately closed in 2007. Since its inception, this 'tale as old as time' has played everywhere from elementary schools to international opera houses. Now at Wolf Trap, the NETworks Presentations, LLC touring company is playing through Sunday on their final leg of their national tour before taking the summer off.

ACTORS AND DIRECTORS LIVING IN BROOKLYN (AdLib), in association with THE SIMON STUDIO, is pleased to announce the world premiere production of Sarah Levine Simon's THE PORTRAIT, directed by Roger Hendricks Simon (NY Shakespeare Festival, Yale Rep, London's Royal Court Theatre). THE PORTRAIT, which was first written and produced as a radio play for National Public Radio, will play a limited engagement at Theatre 54 (Shetler Studios, 244 West 54th Street, 12th Fl.). Performances begin Wednesday, January 15 and continue through Sunday, January 26. Opening Night is Thursday, January 16 (8 p.m.). Tickets are $18 and are available at smarttix.com.

Rep Stage, the professional Equity theatre in residence at Howard Community College (HCC), concludes its 20th anniversary season with Marc Camoletti's high-flying bedroom farce, Boeing Beoing. Karl Kippola, who starred as Tom Wingfield in Rep's 2010 production of The Glass Menagerie, directs this comedic romp through 1960s Paris where Bernard, an American bachelor playboy, must juggle the comings and goings of his three air-hostess fiancees, his overworked acerbic French maid, and an old friend who unexpectedly arrives from Wisconsin. Bernard has the arrivals and departures of the trio of international air-hostesses perfectly scheduled by using the airlines own timetables - until the addition of the Boeing Boeing jets. Suddenly, air travel gets faster and turbulence ensues until everyone arrives at Bernard's Parisian love-nest at the same time. Boeing Boeing features James Whalen as Bernard; Paul Edward Hope as Robert, the friend; and Nanna Ingvarsson as Berthe, the French maid; with Allison Leigh Corke, Kelsea Edgerly, and Molly Cahill Govern coming in for a landing as the three international flight attendants.

Produced by Extempore Theatre (the new name for award-winning experimental theatre company The Sticking Place), creators of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical and The Terror Seasons, Britain's only annual festival of horror theatre and Grand Guignol, The 6th Annual London Improvathon takes place over 50 hours from Friday 11 January at 7.00pm to Sunday 13 January at 9.00pm at Hoxton Hall. Check out photos from the event below!

PRIVATE LIVES, quintessential Noel Coward, still shows style and wit onstage at Wayside Theatre, Middletown, Va. But the well cast production is amusing without being a laugh riot. PRIVATE LIVES runs through August 11.

PRIVATE LIVES, quintessential Noel Coward, still shows style and wit onstage at Wayside Theatre, Middletown, Va. But the well cast production is amusing without being a laugh riot. PRIVATE LIVES runs through August 11.

"Always leave them laughing when you say goodbye" is attributed to legendary entertainer and producer George M. Cohan, so it's no surprise when TheatreZone artistic director Mark Danni adheres to Cohan's advice, completing a successful Season 7 by the Equity professional theatre group, with The Boy Friend.

"Always leave them laughing when you say goodbye" is attributed to legendary entertainer and producer George M. Cohan, so it's no surprise when TheatreZone artistic director Mark Danni adheres to Cohan's advice, completing a successful Season 7 by the Equity professional theatre group, with The Boy Friend.