Muddled ‘Merry Wives’ Still Hatches Laughs

Call him “The Nutty Philanderer.”

As Sir John Falstaff in Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” part of the Occidental Theater Festival, Christopher Coddington is decked out in a fat suit that rivals Eddie Murphy’s for sheer look-at-all-the-blubber absurdity. When another foiled seduction leaves Coddington’s big guy sprawled in his long johns looking like a flannel Humpty Dumpty, this version comes admirably close to belly laughs.

If it’s otherwise less than sidesplitting, however, the fault lies not entirely with director John Bouchard. So, we’re supposed to believe the same guy who wrote “King Lear” baked a croissant like this? There’s a love story in here somewhere, but it gets lost amid the farce of timeless clown Falstaff, titular wives Ford (Hillary Spector) and Page (Tawny Rene Hamilton) and the former’s jealous husband (Tom Shelton).

Shelton, in particular, is funny and compelling, a dry and droll mixture of Nathan Lane and Michael Palin. Coddington relies a bit too heavily on stock bellowing and harrumphing, but for someone so slender he’s surprisingly convincing. Jamie Angell makes an amusing French fop, though some supporting players are afflicted with the high-pitched squirming that inevitably afflicts Shakespeare neophytes.

Bouchard has updated the action to 1937, which has affected the costumes greatly but the theme, or what there is of it, not at all.

* “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” Keck Theater, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles. Saturday, also next Friday, July 17, 20, Aug. 8, 15, 21, 8 p.m.; July 28, Aug. 11, 25, 2 p.m. Ends Aug. 25. $14-$18. (213) 259-2922. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.