STAGE REVIEWS : ‘MOVE OVER’

The cheerfully naughty “Move Over, Mrs. Markham” is given a diverting, if unsuitably delicate, treatment at the Garden Grove Community Theatre.

This contemporary British farce details the bedroom intrigues of a staid young publisher, his wife, their interior decorator and assorted friends. Playwrights Ray Cooney and John Chapman leave no sheet unturned--everyone seems to be involved with everyone else--and make generous use of double - entendre in the risible exchanges. But director Peter Dolan and his attractive cast don’t deliver those exchanges with enough relish to lift the comedy above a rather juvenile level. And although Dolan has a feeling for the changing rhythms of the play, his staging of the play’s hijinks is too lackadaisical to sustain the comedy.

Of the cast, Scott Ellsworth, as Mr. Markham’s philandering business partner, is the most effective. Ellsworth is most believable as the devoted pursuer of any woman not his wife. His character is obviously having fun doing what he does best. Kevin Coffman and Kerene Barnard, as Mr. and Mrs. Markham, and Mike Moon as the decorator, all have good moments. Dorothy Macdonald makes fine use of a wonderful deadpan as the very proper writer of children’s books, and Kathleen O’Brien is very funny as Ellsworth’s blind date.

The New York apartment set (credited to Pacific Sets) is pretty but confusing, featuring doors that would seem to lead to window ledges instead of to the kitchen or the study.

“Move Over, Mrs. Markham” continues through June 28 at Garden Grove Community Theatre, 12001 Saint Mark St. For information, call (714) 897-5122.