Brian Bedford’s Bracknell: Her Ladyship Is Welcomed Back on Broadway
The Importance of Being Earnest is omnipresent in New York City. At any given moment, on an Off-Off-Broadway stage, Algernon is eating his muffins calmly amidst his domestic chaos because to do otherwise would drip butter on his cuffs. A small cast and a classic comedy guarantee frequency of production, but it has been quite some time since Algernon refused everything but eat and drink on Broadway – not since the 1977 Circle in the Square production starring John Glover and Mary Louise Wilson among other notables. The Roundabout Theatre has now brought Algy, and his remarkable relatives, back in a production that makes the 116 year old play as funny and fresh as the first time you may have seen Ernest and his opponent/aunt/mother-in-law Lady Bracknell square off.
Opening tonight, The Importance of Being Earnest is staged in conjunction with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival which enjoyed a highly successful run in the summer of 2009 under the guidance of celebrated actor Brian Bedford who revisits his role as the monster that’s not a myth – Lady Bracknell. It is under Mr. Bedford’s direction that this Earnest feels as lively, not bogged down by the self-awareness of all those brilliant epigrams, as I’ve ever seen it.
It was a very young (surprisingly young) crowd at the preview I attended, and they laughed at all the right places and offered applause too at the entrance of the esteemed British actor in full drag (but not full camp) as her Ladyship. Mr. Bedford materialized with giant wings on his head in a homage perhaps to the classic 1952 Edith Evans, Michael Redgrave movie version of Earnest, but this performance never extended beyond homage to mimicry. On screen, Dame Evans had a dead bird on her head – highlighting her predatory ways no doubt – Mr. Bedford stops short of the Gorgon played for mere laughs. There is a humanity to Lady Bracknell that ends up heightening the comedy rather than the schtick.
The “where is that baby” key scene where Bracknell grills Miss Prism (NYC’s beloved Dana Ivey) adds a touch of pathos to the fear factor; the formidable aunt falls back on the couch in emotion, seemingly as the memories of a lost nephew overwhelm her/him. The director declared that he and the whole cast of Earnest would be playing the comedy straight, “for real,” and it is in this moment that his intentions are made clear and the performance extraordinary.
Another wonderful performance was David Furr as Jack Worthing. Of course, and as I have said earlier, Algy (Santino Fontana) gets all the best lines, but here Mr. Furr (when he wasn’t busy laughing at his fellow actor’s performances) holds a desirable comic equilibrium with Algy. This boat doesn’t list even if the Victorian society it mocks did.
Sara Topham as Gwendolyn Fairfax was only too apparently her mother, Lady Bracknell, now and not in 150 years as Jack supposes. Ms. Topham was shrill and rushed through lines that should be savored – being second only to Algernon with some of the night’s best zingers.
Charlotte Parry was Cecily in the 2006 Sir Peter Hall Earnest at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starring Lynn Redgrave as Lady Bracknell. She is Cecily now as well, so Ms. Parry is obviously not the 18 year old ingenue imagined, but her performance is well-calculated to balance Algy’s comic perfect storm – she’s as crazy as he is, and all they ever speak is nonsense to the delight of a 21st century Broadway audience.
With a lovely set by longtime Stratford designer, Desmond Heeley, that suggests a delicate decay and an impending winter, The Importance of Being Earnest runs through March 6th.
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