Theater Review : A Noise Within’s ‘Engaged’ Weds Strong Cast to Whimsy

An evening of inspired lunacy is the happy result when A Noise Within weds its impeccable professional pedigrees to the whimsical flights of W. S. Gilbert in “Engaged,” the third installment in the ensemble’s spring repertory season.

Glendale’s classical repertory company has unearthed a splendid chestnut in this obscure 1877 farce by the librettist half of the renowned comic operetta team. Gilbert & Sullivan aficionados need no prompting to expect dazzling wordplay and eccentric characters enslaved to their silliest impulses in this non-musical play about an aristocratic bachelor who compulsively proposes marriage to every woman he meets.

As the hapless Cheviot Hill, whose wayward libido asserts itself in such extreme--and expensive--lapses of self-control, Bill Mondy remains convincingly frenzied (though occasionally mannered) through the frequent plot reversals centered around inherited wealth contingent on quirky stipulations.

Underlying the inanity is Gilbert’s deft satire on the Victorian obsession with marriage as a commercial, rather than a romantic, enterprise. The three female leads advance his case with hilarious precision: Emily Heebner burns with undying passion for her respective paramours as long as their income is guaranteed; Ann Marie Lee trades her squeaky, bubble-headed prattle for no-nonsense accounting jargon whenever the conversation turns to finances; and Tawny Hamilton gushes her regrets in the lyrical Scottish brogue of a wee innocent mountain lassie, as she notifies her victim of an impending breach of promise suit.

The ultimate travesty comes when Cheviot’s rival (John Rafter Lee), uncertain which of two women will best support him, hedges his bets with a generic proposal to both at the same time. Michael Manuel, Jenifer Parker, Bridget Connors, and, briefly, James Karr further the complications with bull’s-eye supporting performances.

Gilbert’s dialogue and comically inverted predicaments rival Oscar Wilde for cleverness. And while his characters lack the self-awareness with which Wilde turned the farce genre back on itself, Gilbert infuses them with a deliciously unrepentant avarice these performers can run with.

Sabin Epstein’s lively, elegant staging avoids trading humor for authenticity, the frequent bane of historical comedies. Instead of leaving us figuring “I guess you had to be there,” this masterful application of technique in the service of comic sensibilities ensures we are there.

* “Engaged,” A Noise Within, 234 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale. Friday and April 28, May 12 and 19, 8 p.m.; Saturday and April 22, May 13, 20, 8 p.m, April 29 at 2 p.m.; Sundays on May 7, 21 at 7 p.m., April 23, May 21 at 2 p.m.; Wednesdays: April 19, May 3, 17 at 8 p.m.; Thursday, May 4, at 8 p.m. Ends May 21. $17-$19. (818) 546-1924. Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes.