Director Needs to Restore ‘Order’

Ray Cooney’s farces are simplicity itself, and that’s probably why they’re continually popular. His “Out of Order,” for instance, was a smash hit in London’s West End and won the coveted Olivier Award for best comedy. They’re very funny confections, requiring their audiences only to sit back and laugh.

Which is why it’s always curious when directors feel the need to add their own funny on top of Cooney’s. His comedies are hilarious when played absolutely straight, but only marginally so when directors and actors try to be funny themselves. That’s the problem with director Gregory Cohen’s staging of “Out of Order” on Long Beach Playhouse’s Mainstage.

Characters flip over the back of the sofa and somersault for no reason. Actor John Gilbert, as a hotel waiter who is usually hysterical, stands out like a sore thumb with his unfunny “funny voice” and “funny walk,” which makes him look as though he’s wading through waist-high mud. A character listed only as “A Body” is dressed by the protagonists in white tie and tails, but his pants are put on inside out and backward, which none of the other characters think odd--but obviously Cohen thought was funny. It isn’t. It’s corny, old-fashioned burlesque humor, and out of place here.

Those actors who play it very straight, or use subtle physical comedy with intelligence, manage to almost survive these distractions. That body, for instance, which turns out to be a very much alive private detective who loses consciousness and his memory when a faulty window sash beans him, is memorably played by Jason Hice; his intuitive and minimal use of physical comedy is at times almost Chaplinesque. It’s honest and real, and that’s what makes it work.

The plot involves Richard Willey (Ron Graham), a British junior minister who plans to dally with his opponent’s secretary (Heidi Jo Corey) in a hotel near the Houses of Parliament during an important debate. As in all classic sex farces, nothing sexual actually happens; plans fall apart, and all the wrong people show up to complicate things.

Graham is funny when he relaxes later in the evening, but at first he is a little heavy-handed, as though playing a drama without the very light touch farce needs. Corey is delightful as the secretary, straightforward and real. Bill Peters, as Willey’s own parliamentary private secretary George Pigden, just barely misses going overboard and saves a lot of iffy moments by his restraint as a mama’s boy who discovers his own sexual magnetism.

Adam Kingl, as Corey’s jealous and volatile working-class husband, Ronnie, is excellent by virtue of his sincerity, particularly in those difficult moments when Ronnie has to break down in tears to set up one of the show’s funniest sight gags. As Willey’s wife Pamela, Yvonne Robertson couldn’t be better, quiet and reserved until she throws all caution to the winds of her own hidden passion.

Mitchell Nunn as the hotel manager, Theresa Santiago as the nurse who cares for Pigden’s mother, and Jaye Wilson as the hotel maid do well in a staging that would get more laughs if the director had trusted the playwright.

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* “Out of Order,” Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage, 5021 E. Anaheim St. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays (except March 15), 2 p.m. Ends April 4. $10-$15. (562) 494-1616. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.

Ron Graham: Richard Willey

Mitchell Nunn: The Manager

John Gilbert: The Waiter

Heidi Jo Corey: Jane Worthington

Jason Hice: A Body

Bill Peters: George Pigden

Jaye Wilson: The Maid

Adam Kingl: Ronnie

Yvonne Robertson: Pamela

Theresa Santiago: Gladys

A Long Beach Playhouse production of Ray Cooney’s farce. Directed by Gregory Cohen. Scenic design: Linda Garen Smith. Lighting design: John Fejes. Sound design: AB Audio Design Studios. Costumes: Donna Fritsche. Stage manager: David Beatty.