Theater Review : Capable Cast Tries to Bring Coward’s ‘Relative’ to Life

Like all playwrights, Noel Coward went through a fallow period, his being the early 1950s, when most critics were bemoaning the fact that the Master was finished.

Their “brittle” and “thin” Coward was trying too hard. “Relative Values,” one of the plays of that period, is a good example of a master of high comedy gone awry. This production at Long Beach Playhouse, under Darlene Hunter-Chaffee, tries its best to make the play work.

Though it hasn’t much of Coward’s brilliantly acerbic dialogue, it has moments, including an inside joke that Coward must have chuckled over while writing. The butler, Crestwell, is tipped a $20 bill; waving it in the air, he announces, “If the government knew I had this, I’d get a knighthood.” Coward was preparing to leave England because of heavy taxation and, indeed, had just been denied a knighthood.

But those laughs are few and far between. This is a comedy of manners in the old style, and even one of the characters in the play comments on the demise of that style. The obligatory titles of an earlier theatrical convention are present in the persons of Felicity, Countess of Marshwood; her son Nigel, the current Earl of Marshwood, and their neighbors Sir John and Lady Hayling.

The silly problem arises with the forthcoming marriage of Nigel to Hollywood movie star Miranda Frayle, on the rebound from a relationship with film heartthrob Don Lucas. Miranda’s older, estranged sister, Dora, now Felicity’s lady’s maid Moxie, must be disguised as a member of the family to prevent embarrassment all round and give Coward the chance to make his point, that class will tell when all is said and done. It’s not vintage Coward, and its relative values are slight.

Although Hunter-Chaffee’s comic rhythms are sure, a leisurely pace gives the production unwanted weight. The verbal parrying is not crisp enough, and the titled are not bored enough. The servants are much too friendly to their employers, and vice versa. The movie stars are less crass than Coward meant them, and his class consciousness is dimly perceived.

Yvonne Robertson’s Felicity is closest to the Coward mold, slightly brittle, sort of eccentric in the Lady Astor manner. Her Countess is a true lady, and her lady’s maid Moxie couldn’t be truer than in Susan E. Taylor’s performance. Taylor has the dedication and some of the fire that distinguished Lady Astor’s own maid, Rose Harrison, and a lot of Harrison’s own strong belief in the class system. Having known both, Coward probably based Felicity’s relationship with Moxie on Nancy Astor and Rose.

Bob Connor’s Crestwell is a bit too flamboyant and grand, not starchy enough, but he has a paternal humor that works nicely, and Jefferey Lappin (alternating with Bryan Butrum and Michael Leslie White) as Nigel is properly stuffy and priggish, with a slight, interesting edge of lasciviousness underneath.

Michael Langley is as laid-back as he should be as Felicity’s nephew, with a rewarding, Cowardesque blase coolness. Alexa Jago as Miranda and Robin Avery as Don Lucas are both good, she trying to rise above her sordid past, he drawling his uncouthness comfortably, but they could be more the insufferable egos that kept Coward from working in Hollywood.

Jaye Wilson and Paul Teschke, as the pompous Haylings, and Sarah Von Der Pol as the flighty housemaid Alice, do well in their supporting roles.

There is no program credit for a dialect coach, but the British tone is admirably subtle and true.

R. Todd Parker’s drawing room setting looks like it might be in an English manor, and Donna Fritsche’s costumes couldn’t be more correct for the period, except for Lucas’ unmatched double-breasted suit coat and pants, something even a tacky movie star of the period would not consider wearing.

* “Relative Values,” Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Matinees Sunday and May 7 and 14, 2 p.m. Ends May 20. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes. Bob Connor: Crestwell

Sarah Von Der Pol: Alice

Susan E. Taylor: Mrs. Dora Moxton (Moxie)

Yvonne Robertson: Felicity, Countess of Marshwood

Jaye Wilson: Lady Cynthia Hayling

Michael Langley: The Honorable Peter Ingleton

Paul Teschke: Admiral Sir John Hayling

Jefferey Lappin: Nigel, Earl of Marshwood

Alexa Jago: Miranda Frayle

Robin Avery: Don Lucas

A Long Beach Playhouse production of the Noel Coward comedy. Directed by Darlene Hunter-Chaffee. Scenic design: R. Todd Parker. Lighting design: Frank McKown. Costume design: Donna Fritsche. Technical direction: John H. Nokes. Stage manager: Maria Bercovitz.