THEATER REVIEW : ‘Laughter’ Has Smiles and Style

Noel Coward’s “Present Laughter” is the kind of play in which people don’t just wear pajamas--they wear silk pajamas. Happily, in director Darlene Hunter-Chaffee’s revival at Newport Theatre Arts Center, they’re really wearing silk pajamas.

For a production on a community-theater scale, the absorption of things Coward is pretty impressive. You might question the off-putting, light-pastel look of Garry’s (Michael Langley) London flat (care of set designer John Nokes), but the mood, pace and delivery here are all fairly consistently true to a world filled with stylish egos and witty repartee.

Best of all, things never feel forced nor learned by rote; led by the fine Langley (who has a droll, Bill Murray-like world-weariness), this cast fluidly conveys a caustic, urbane sensibility like it’s second nature. Ask these people to make you a martini, and they’d deliver.

For those less attuned to Coward than these actors, the parallel to current comedy is “Seinfeld.” Like Jerry and his pals, the comedy surrounding Garry and his pals isn’t about anything in particular, and more about the funny chemistry between characters.

The biggest action in “Present Laughter” comes when Garry, a “famous romantic comedian” of the stage, prepares for a theatrical tour of Africa. Lacking the crises of farce, Coward’s situation comedy is more about the little mistakes people make with each other.

Women, for instance, go to Garry like a magnet. It’s something Garry neither fights nor encourages; he just accepts it, like gravity. Of course, young and horny Daphne (K. Leila Johnson) doesn’t know this, and neither does the predatory Joanna (Cathie Kennedy).

Garry’s habit of letting things go too far--and its ramifications--is literally all that “Present Laughter” is about, but it’s enough to generate three acts’ worth of a comic souffle.

What it is not about is World War II, even though we are in London, 1943. Coward revels in avoiding the harsh outside world, but the people tugging and pulling at Garry for his attention make their own kind of war anyway.

The comedy observes how one person--Joanna--jealous of feeling outside of a close circle of friends, tries to tear them apart. She is married to one, Hugo (Dan B. Rodgers), and fooling around with another, Morris (Rusty Halverson). She tries to seduce Garry, while Garry’s estranged wife, Liz (Kelly Herman), tries to thwart Joanna’s every move.

“Present Laughter” is far from Coward’s most developed take on the politics of relationships, but it contains wonderful examples of men and women who are in Platonic like with each other. Garry’s chummy familiarity with both Liz and his secretary Monica (Christi J. Sweeney) makes for real human theater that elegantly contrasts with all of the backbiting.

Like “Seinfeld,” there’s also plain nonsense, as with the crazed, pseudo-serious playwright Roland (Bill Peters), who keeps barging unannounced into Garry’s flat. Peters makes this irritating caricature of the artist type more irritating than is called for, and Glenn Cody as the butler and Christa McDonnell as the mystical cook are simply unfunny.

These are lapses in otherwise solid casting, though Kennedy’s habit of having Joanna pose tends to make her more toothless than she should be. She is predatory like a lioness, though, and Langley is hilariously spooked by her. He captures all of Garry’s torn allegiances--to his friends, to his career, to his privacy, to his libido. He suggests, ever so subtly, a man who knows he should turn left but turns right anyway, yet he doesn’t allow us to dislike him.

Herman commandingly lends Liz the sense that she’s seen all of this before with Garry but knows how to play hardball when it counts. Sweeney has Monica, perhaps Garry’s best and wisest friend of all, down to her bones.

Johnson is all funny dizziness as Daphne; Rodgers wisely underplays Hugo’s cluelessness, and Halverson deftly plays a man in over his head with sexual dalliances.

The silk pj’s, along with the rest of Larry Watts’ costumes, are distinctive and absolutely right. It’s hard work on a community-theater budget, but, for once, the sweat doesn’t show.

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“Present Laughter,” Newport Theatre Arts Center, 2501 Cliff Drive, Newport Beach. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends July 16. $13. (714) 631-0288. Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

Garry: Michael Langley

Liz: Kelly Herman

Monica: Christi J. Sweeney

Joanna: Cathie Kennedy

Daphne: K. Leila Johnson

Hugo: Dan B. Rodgers

Morris: Rusty Halverson

Roland: Bill Peters

Fred: Glenn Cody

Miss Erickson: Christa McDonnell

Lady Saltburn: Ellen Daphne Walcutt

A Newport Theatre Arts Center production of Noel Coward’s comedy. Directed by Darlene Hunter-Chaffee. Set: John Nokes. Costumes: Larry Watts. Lights: Jane Phillips Hobson.