My spouse and I
attended a Sunday afternoon performance of Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter” in
early May 2017. The play stars Kevin Kline as Garry Essendine, Cobie Smulders (Robin
from “How I Met Your Mother”) as Joanna Lyppiatt, and Elizabeth Burton (Richard Burton’s daughter) as Garry’s estranged
wife Liz Essendine.
We saw the play at
the St. James Theatre, which first opened in 1927 as The Erlanger
Theatre. In 1930, after Mr. Erlanger passed away, the Astor family bought the
theatre and renamed it the St. James. The theatre continued to change owners
until 1970, when the Jujamcyn Theaters group purchased it. (Jujamcyn derives
its name from the names of owner William McKnight’s grandchildren: Judith,
James, and Cynthia.) Jujamcyn also owns the Eugene O’Neill Theatre (running “The
Book of Mormon”), the Hirschfeld Theatre (running “Kinky Boots”), the August
Wilson Theatre (running “Groundhog Day”), and the Walter Kerr Theatre (running “Amelie”).The
Michael Keaton movie “Birdman” was filmed in the theatre’s lobby, stage, and
backstage areas, and it has also been featured in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”, in
an episode of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, and in a few episodes of
“Smash”. Years ago, we saw “The Producers” (March 2002) and “Swing!” (September
2000) at the St. James Theatre.
On the afternoon that we attended
the play, the theatre offered seats only in the orchestra/floor level and in
the first/lower balcony; seats in the second/upper balcony were not available
for sale. General public restroom are located on the basement level; you
must descend a wide set of L-shaped stairs. Men line up on the left side of the
stairs, and women line up on the right. To reach the orchestra/street level
afterwards, guests must climb the stairs between the two lines of people, which
can be difficult because there is no handrail. (A handicap-accessible restroom
is located on the street level.) An attendant in the restroom calls out the
number of the empty stalls, a remarkably efficient system. A bar on the street
level offers drinks both before the show and during admission. (There is a
15-minute admission between the first two acts, with two 1-minute pauses during
each act.). You can take drinks and snacks into the theatre to enjoy during the
performance.
We won the right to buy our tickets in an online lottery presented
by Jujamcyn. For about $40 per ticket (booked through
Ticketmaster with a special code), we were able to choose from a pool/map of
available seats, some of which were marked as limited/partial view. (The
limited view seats were primarily located on the outer aisle of either the left
or right orchestra, or more central located but in the orchestra rear.) We chose
to purchase two seats in the third row (C), numbers 14 and 16, which were the
last two seats in the row on the orchestra right. In hindsight, we should have
chosen the same seats but on the orchestra left side so that we could see Kevin
Kline make his grand entrance down the set’s staircase, and so that we could
see other characters enter the off-stage “office” on the right side of the
stage itself. (As it was, we could only partially view those areas, as the
visibility indicator on our tickets stated.) One other obstruction on the right
side of the stage was the placement of a furniture ottoman that was sometimes in
our line of sight, depending on where the actors stood on the stage. If you
have a choice, select seats on orchestra left side of the stage for the better
view.
Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward
in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower
middle-class domestic drama “This
Happy Breed”. Later Coward's new play “Blithe Spirit” was added to the repertory for the tour.
The
play's title “Present Laughter” comes from a song in Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night”, which urges “carpe diem” ("present mirth hath
present laughter"), and so the word “present” in the title should be pronounced as the adjective.
The
plot follows a few days in the life of the successful and self-obsessed light-comedy
actor Garry Essendine as he prepares to travel for a touring commitment in
Africa. Amid a series of events bordering on absurd, Garry must deal with women
who want to seduce him, placate both his long-suffering secretary and his
estranged wife, cope with a crazed young playwright, and overcome his impending
mid-life crisis (since he has recently turned forty). The story was described
by Coward as "a series of semi-autobiographical pyrotechnics”.
All three acts of the play occur in Garry Essendine's
London flat.
Act I
Daphne Stillington, a young admirer of the actor Garry
Essendine, has finagled herself into the flat and spent the night there,
stating that she has lost her “latchkey”. Garry is still asleep, and while
waiting for him to wake, Daphne encounters in turn three employees of Garry,
housekeeper (Miss Erikson), valet (Fred), and secretary (Monica). None of them
displays any surprise at her presence. Garry finally wakes and with practiced
smoothness, ushers Daphne out.
Liz Essendine, who left Garry years ago, nevertheless
remains part of his life along with Monica and his manager, Morris Dixon, and
producer, Henry Lyppiatt. Liz tells Garry that she suspects that Morris is
having an affair with Henry's glamorous wife Joanna, and is concerned that this
might break up the family. Their discussion is interrupted by the arrival of
Roland Maule, an aspiring young playwright, whose play Garry has rashly agreed
to critique. Liz leaves, and Roland rapidly becomes obsessively fascinated by
Garry, who ushers him off the premises as quickly as he can.
Morris and Henry arrive and discuss theatrical business
with Garry. Henry leaves for a business trip abroad, and Garry privately
interrogates Morris, who denies that he is having an affair with Joanna. Garry
telephones Liz to reassure her.
Act II
Scene 1, midnight, three days later
Garry,
alone in the flat, answers the doorbell to find Joanna. She claims (like Daphne
in Act I) to have forgotten her own latchkey and asks Garry if she can sleep in
his spare room. He correctly suspects her motives, but after much skirmishing
allows himself to be seduced.
Scene 2, the next morning
Joanna
emerges from the spare room wearing Garry's pajamas just as Daphne did in Act
I. She too encounters Miss Erikson, Fred, and then Monica, who is horrified at
her presence in such compromising circumstances. Liz arrives and puts pressure
on Joanna by threatening to tell Morris that Joanna has spent the night with
Garry. Joanna retreats to the spare room when the doorbell rings, but the
caller is not Morris but Roland Maule, who says he has an appointment with
Garry. Monica leads him to the office to wait for Garry.
Frantic
comings and goings follow, with the flustered arrivals and departures of Morris
and Henry, Roland's pursuit of Garry, and the arrival of a Lady Saltburn, to
whose niece Garry has promised an audition. The niece turns out to be Daphne
Stillington, who recites the same Shelley poem with which Garry bid her
farewell in Act I. Joanna flounces out from the spare room, Daphne faints with
horror, Roland is entranced, and Garry is furious.
Act III
A week
later, on the eve of Garry's departure on tour in Africa, he is once more alone
in the flat. The doorbell rings and Daphne enters saying she has a ticket to
sail with him to Africa. The doorbell rings again, and Daphne retreats to an
adjoining room. The new caller is Roland, who announces that he too has a
ticket for the voyage to Africa. Garry tries to get him to leave, but as the
doorbell rings a third time Roland bolts into the spare room and locks the
door. The third caller is Joanna, who has also bought a ticket for the Africa
voyage and has written a letter to Henry and Morris telling them everything.
Liz arrives and saves the tottering situation, announcing that she too is
travelling to Africa.
Henry
and Morris arrive and berate Garry for his night with Joanna. Garry fights back
by revealing the details of Morris and Joanna's affair, and Henry's
extramarital adventures. Joanna angrily slaps Garry's face and leaves for good.
Her departure goes unnoticed because Garry, Henry, and Morris have begun to
fight when it emerges that Henry and Morris have committed Garry to appear at
what he considers a shockingly unsuitable theatre. Garry objects, but it is
business as usual and Henry and Morris leave in good humor.
Liz
pours Garry a brandy and tells him she is not only going to Africa with him but
is coming back to him for good. Garry suddenly remembers Daphne and Roland
lurking in the adjoining rooms and tells Liz: "You're not coming back to
me ... I'm coming back to you", and they tiptoe out.
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