STAGE REVIEW : ‘JEEVES’ NOT QUITE IN FULL CHARGE

An evening with Bertie Wooster seemed just the thing to lighten the strain, so we toddled round to the Westwood Playhouse on Wednesday to see Edward Duke in “Jeeves Takes Charge.” He seemed--striking the tactful note--somewhat off his feed.

You know yourself how hard it is to be a good host just after you’ve just had an argument with a near-and-dear, or just blown the family fortune, or otherwise landed in the soup. The spirit is willing, but the old bean isn’t working properly. Duke seemed to be in that state Wednesday. Jolly good, but not absolutely on the mark. A hint of a corpse in the bedroom, so to speak.

It’s all very well for the Westwood to run ads about “Jeeves Takes Charge” being a “two act, 12-character comedy tour-de-force.” In point of fact, it’s a one-chap show, and Duke is the chap. He even wrote the thing, from the works of the sainted P. G. And a ripping show it probably is, when nobody has thrown sand in the petrol.

For instance, it’s jolly fun to watch Duke jump from Bertie to Jeeves to Bertie without missing a stroke of their conversation--rather like watching a fellow zipping around a ping-pong table holding up both ends of the game at once. You almost think you see two fellows, or at least one-and-one-half.

Jeeves being the fraction. Duke does the honors by him, but doesn’t present him as being any more aged-in-the-wood than Bertie, who (as the Westwood program points out) will always be a vernal 24. The note of ancestral terror is missed. It may be that Sir John has pretty much sewed up the market on snob-butlers just at present.

Duke’s Bertie, however, is the real goods. The swank silhouette--the neighing laugh--the ga-ga expression--the note of utter incompetence set off by a breezy diablerie --the more or less complete absence of gray matter--the childlike heart: It was our Bertie to the life, down to his original taste in waistcoats. (Spiffy costumes by Una-Mary Parker.) Aunt Agatha would have cringed.

But Duke’s mind was everywhere but on his work Wednesday night. A fellow couldn’t blame him, what with the missed light cues (Greg Sullivan did the lighting) and the pop-up props that refused to pop up (Carl Toms did the set.) Still, it did lead him to take a rather Germanic line with the audience. “I haven’t finished yet,” he said when the multitudes began to titter during one of the early bits. “There’s lots more to come. Unfortunately.”

A bit thick, what? There was also some confusion in my aisle about whether we were supposed to help Bertie sing “Look For The Silver Lining,” so we didn’t. They say this show has been the toast of San Francisco, New York and London, where he has actually played it for Crowned Heads. But on Wednesday “Jeeves Takes Charge” seemed rather in need of a Jeeves itself. Perhaps director Gillian Lynne should pop round for another look.

‘JEEVES TAKES CHARGE’

An entertainment based on P. G. Wodehouse’s “Jeeves” stories, at the Westwood Playhouse. Conceived and adapted by Edward Duke. Presented by Lawrence N. Dykun, Michael J. Needham and Robert L. Sachter, in association with Ethel Lady Wodehouse . Director Gillian Lynne. Designer Carl Toms. Lighting Greg Sullivan. Costumes Una-Mary Parker. Production stage manager Cosmo P. Hanson. Choreography Susan Holderness. With Edward Duke. Plays Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8:30 p.m., Sundays at 2:30 and 7:30. 10866 Le Conte Ave. (213) 208-5454.