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Noël Coward’s delightful, seldom produced 1925 drama Fallen Angels is nan benignant of Broadway fare that gives critics ample logic to usage descriptors for illustration “fizzy” and “intoxicating” and “dizzying,” each apt successful capturing nan pleasures of its airy sophistication and raucous, gutbucket smart, rich-ladies-get-drunk laughs. What was existent successful nan Jazz Age remains so, arsenic nan Roundabout Theatre Company accumulation starring nan terrific Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara, opening tonight, truthful bountifully proves.
A showcase for nan even-then legendary Tallulah Bankhead backmost successful nan day, Fallen Angels, erstwhile arguable for its casual depictions of female libido and not-so-wifely infidelity, has been produced connected Broadway only doubly earlier – 1927 and 1956 – and a TV movie adjustment starring Joan Collins and Susannah York aired successful 1974.
But nan play’s power exceeds its visibility. The beloved British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous mightn’t beryllium without Fallen Angels. Too galore Real Housewives to count person lifted nan drunken acerbity and giddy backstabbing of Coward’s heroines, though pinch considerably little wit and whether they cognize it aliases not. Fans of ’70s sitcoms mightiness moreover retrieve an fantabulous Season 3 section of Norman Lear’s Maude (“Lovers In Common”) that is simply a beat-for-beat distillation of nan play, pinch Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan successful nan role-equivalents of nan characters now luminously inhabited by O’Hara and Byrne.
Under nan judge guidance of Scott Ellis and fixed a lush, gorgeous staging by Roundabout and immoderate of Broadway’s champion designers – David Rockwell, sets, sumptuous; Jeff Mahshie, costumes, heavy oppulance; Kenneth Posner, ever-so-flattering lighting – Fallen Angels is a astir invited springtime treat, a smart, breezy introduction successful Broadway’s chaotically engaged pre-Tony season.
While Fallen Angels first and past belongs to nan splendidly attired ladies-in-waiting for nan return of a long-ago lover, Ellis has surrounded them by a dandy ensemble, pinch Christopher Fitzgerald and Aasif Mandvi arsenic nan baffled husbands, Tracee Chimo arsenic nan wisecracking, buttinsky of a maid (a characteristic that would pass decades of akin comic servants) and, arsenic nan lusted-after, late-arriving sexy man-from-the-past, Live With Kelly & Mark co-host and erstwhile soap hunk Mark Consuelos sending up his daytime persona to crowd-pleasing effect successful his Broadway debut.
The premise is arsenic elemental and convoluted arsenic nan farce commands: Lifelong friends and impeccably attired sophisticates Julia (O’Hara) and Jane (Byrne), settled into companionable if passion-free marriages (to Mandvi’s Fred and Fitzgerald’s Willy, respectively), person received connection that a man from some of their pasts is soon to sojourn London from his Paris home, and he wants to spot these erstwhile flings for reasons that nan women tin only dream about.
With nan husbands disconnected for a play outing, Julia and Jane (well attended to by Chimo’s martini-mixing maid Saunders) get decked retired successful their evening finest and hold impatiently astatine Julia’s luxe flat (Jane lives upstairs) for nan enigma man Maurice to arrive. What originates arsenic sisterly bonding complete their shared possibly not-so-dead passion for nan suave ladies man devolves, pinch each slug of gin, into progressively vicious (and uproariously hilarious) competition.
“I suppose you deliberation your mind is simply a beautiful gift handbasket filled pinch mixed consequence pinch a front connected top?,” a tipsy and getting tipsier Jane snipes astatine Julia, who responds, “Better than being an aged sardine tin pinch a fewer fins near successful it.” By nan clip Julia deadpans an understated “I wish you’d spell home, Jane” some actors person nan assemblage howling astatine each teeth-baring jab, exquisitely executed.
If Coward’s blithe speech and urbane wordplay remains captivating, truthful excessively is nan beingness joke connected display: It’s ever amusing to watch nan cultivated descent into incivility, moreover amended erstwhile those slides are made literal. O’Hara clammers up nan set’s Art Deco staircase for illustration an inebriated crab, and Byrne, an exemplary comedian who, astatine 1 constituent successful nan reviewed capacity seemed to person gotten an unplanned laughter from her costar aft taking a too-large wound of immoderate scrumptious-looking cocoa concoction and playing it disconnected beautifully, has nan funnybone small heart that allows a gorgeous personification to revel successful unflattering deshabille. Shout-out to hair-and-wig designers David Brian Brown and Victoria Tinsman for a morning-after show gag astir arsenic show-stopping arsenic Carol Burnett’s “Went With The Wind” curtain-rod dress.
Following nan play’s extended raison d’être drunk segment – which includes a wonderfully directed and performed spot involving lengthy cigaret holders and an uncooperative occurrence – Fallen Angels moves much decidedly into farce, pinch missing persons, misunderstandings, suspicious husbands and hung-over wives hopeless to reclaim bid and a modicum of dignity.
Enter Consuelos’ Maurice, of course, conscionable successful clip to put a capper connected each nan scheming and connected this show. Rockwell’s group creation will person 1 past chance to reclaim our attention, and it does truthful deliciously, pinch nan proposal that nan aged friends reason this latest escapade pinch a blissfulness adjacent to what they’ve talented us.
Title: Fallen Angels
Venue: Broadway’s Todd Haimes Theatre
Written By: Noël Coward
Directed By: Scott Ellis
Cast: Rose Byrne, Kelli O’Hara, Tracee Chimo, Mark Consuelos, Christopher Fitzgerald, Aasif Mandvi
Running Time: 1 hr 30 min (no intermission)
The misfortunes endured by Linda, nan frayed nervus portrayed by Rose Byrne successful past year’s unhinged comic play “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” see but are not constricted to: a mysteriously sick child, a surly absentee husband, a malevolent hamster and a cosmic achromatic spread successful her chamber ceiling. Even watching nan movie feels harrowing, a benignant of two-hour panic onslaught by proxy.
So you tin understand why Byrne sought retired a task successful a lighter registry this spring, moreover arsenic “If I Had Legs” continues to gain her immoderate of nan biggest accolades of her career, including a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nomination.
While galore of her chap Oscar nominees thin into nan backstage screenings and ritual glad-handing of Hollywood’s highest run season, she’ll beryllium astatine location successful New York rehearsing for her domiciled successful a Broadway revival of a seldom seen 1925 Noël Coward play called “Fallen Angels” alongside Kelli O’Hara, Tracee Chimo and Mark Consuelos astatine nan Roundabout Theater Company. Performances, astatine nan Todd Haimes Theater, are scheduled to statesman March 27 and tally done early June.
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“The delight of trying to bring a farcical drama to nan shape felt for illustration specified an opportunity and a beautiful antidote creatively, and that’s thing I’ve really been craving,” said Byrne, who last performed onstage six years ago, successful “Medea.”
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“It feels truthful caller to do this play and beryllium successful New York,” Rose Byrne said. “It’s specified a different accomplishment being onstage. It’s truthful rigorous, peculiarly precocious comedy. There’s a different benignant of power required.”
Comedy, arsenic fans who are acquainted pinch her three-decade profession know, is hardly overseas territory. Her turns successful box-office hits for illustration “Bridesmaids,” “Neighbors” and “Get Him to nan Greek” helped to found nan Australian character arsenic a low-key unit successful films successful which her symmetrical, almost doll-like beauty proved a compelling stealth conveyance for cracked and giddily profane humor.
Kelli Christine O’Hara (born April 16, 1976)[1] is an American character and singer, astir known for her activity connected the Broadway and opera stages.
An eight-time Tony Award nominee, O’Hara won the Tony Award for Best Actress successful a Musical for her capacity as Anna Leonowens in the Lincoln Center Theater revival of The King and I at nan 69th Tony Awards successful 2015.[2] She besides received Tony nominations for her performances in The Light successful nan Piazza (2005), The Pajama Game (2006), South Pacific (2008), Nice Work If You Can Get It (2012), The Bridges of Madison County (2014), Kiss Me, Kate (2019), and Days of Wine and Roses (2024).
