On Theater: ‘Fallen Angels’ rises again
The English drawing-room comedy, long a staple in the theater, took on a bit more zip in the Roaring ‘20s with the pungent prose of Noel Coward, whose “Fallen Angels” (circa 1925) currently is in residence at the Newport Theatre Arts Center.
Were the show to be presented straight, it might make for a lengthy evening. But director Larry Watts has pressed the farcical pedal firmly to the metal to transform this modest chuckler into a laugh-out-loud exercise in character-driven hilarity.
The “angels” of the title are two middle-aged women, both in short-duration, lifeless marriages that seem to be crumbling, who receive word that a flamboyant Frenchman from their pasts is about to drop by to “catch up” on the ladies he once ravished. While the husbands are off playing golf, the women — fueled by large quantities of alcohol — begin making their own plans for a bit of naughtiness.
In the Newport production, director Watts — who typically helms flashy musicals — relies on sheer physical comedy to engage his audience. And this element is fiercely injected by the two leading actresses as well as a surly servant who swipes her scenes splendidly.
Della Lisi, one of local theater’s brightest lights, revels in the role of the hostess, Julia, who conducts a love-dislike (“hate” is too strong a word) relationship with her pal Jane (a vibrant Joan Meissenberg).
Lisi employs every slapstick trick at her disposal in one of the year’s most bravura accomplishments on a local stage. The more inebriated she becomes, the funnier her performance as she sprawls over the furniture and yearns for a little nostalgic spice in her all-too-dreary life.
Meissenberg, by contrast, is more tightly wound and thus more controlled while under the influence, but that facade soon falls by the wayside as she clashes with Lisi over their shared reminisces of the dashing Maurice.
Coward and his contemporaries quite often used a maid or butler for comic relief (even in an actual comedy such as Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” and the breakneck farce “See How They Run”). Dee Shanders assumes this role with a vengeance at the Newport theater, undercutting the upper class with a secret smirk or sneer and getting downright hostile with Meissenberg’s character in a memorable performance.
Brian Page as Lisi’s stuffy husband huffs and puffs through his brief, bookending moments at the show’s beginning and end. His counterpart, Floyd Harden, enacts a cartoonist’s version of a stiff-upper-lipped Englishman, ramrod straight and infuriatingly proper.
Finally, there’s Maurice, for whom the audience waits — and waits — for the play’s first two hours. Seth Siegel enacts this Pepe Le Pew-type character with panache and flamboyance in a splendid cameo appearance.
Andrew Otero’s luxurious setting bespeaks upper-class comfort. Watts and Tom Philips have created some richly detailed costumes, and lighting designer Mitch Atkins contributes a nicely lighted playing area.
“Fallen Angels” hasn’t fallen that far out of fashion. The Laguna Playhouse revived it only last season. It’s a blast from the distant past that still manages to induce peals of laughter in its accelerated production at the Newport Theatre Arts Center.
TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.
If You Go
What: “Fallen Angels”Where: Newport Theatre Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach
When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 12 (additional 2 p.m. performance Oct. 11)
Cost: $16
Information: (949) 631-0288 or https://www.ntaconline.com
