Flashy yet no longer in fashion

In most cases, the shelf life of social satire is severely limited. First produced in 1845, Anna Cora Mowatt’s “Fashion,” a send-up of social-climbing New Yorkers, was a popular hit in its day and established Mowatt as a major theatrical force. As a sociological chronicle of a bygone era, “Fashion” still holds a modicum of interest. As a comedy, however, it has passed its expiration date.

Perhaps mindful of that fact, director Ellen Geer lavishes the play’s current production at the Theatricum Botanicum with plenty of bells, whistles and attractive distractions. But these ornamental embellishments can’t entirely obscure Mowatt’s moldy old chestnut, which peeks forth, in all its unsightliness, from beneath the folderol.

As part of her diversionary tactics, Geer intersperses the action with vintage musical numbers, some of a crowd-pleasingly vulgar variety. One suspects that Geer has fiddled considerably with the dialogue as well, as evidenced by jarringly anachronistic lines like: “I’m busier than a cat covered in doo-doo on a marble floor” -- not exactly a line one expects to hear in a 160-year-old play.

However, the cast dances a merry jig -- quite literally -- around the creaky material and has a splendid time doing it. Barbara Tarbuck plays Mrs. Tiffany, a former milliner turned wealthy society matron whose profligate expenditures have brought her husband, Mr. Tiffany (Steve Matt), to the brink of ruin. A latter-day Mrs. Malaprop whose every utterance confirms her lowly origins, Mrs. Tiffany adheres slavishly to the latest European fashions and is particularly delighted when a European count (Mark Lewis) courts her daughter Seraphina (Elizabeth Tobias).

As we soon learn, the count is actually a fortune-hunting impostor who is secretly dallying with Millinette (Abby Craden), Mrs. Tiffany’s concupiscent French maid. The count isn’t the only conniver in this complicated mix. There’s also Snobson (Jeff Bergquist), a boozy schemer who is blackmailing Mr. Tiffany.

The villains are balanced by a fair share of saintly characters, such as Gertrude (Willow Geer), the modest music tutor whose sterling character has attracted a handsome and noble admirer (Gaven Van Over), and Mr. Trueman (Thad Geer), the rich but unaffected farmer who pontificates plentifully about the shallow concerns of city folk. There’s a bumper crop of fools too, including Mrs. Tiffany’s sister Prudence (Melora Marshall), an eccentric spinster who has set her bonnet for Mr. Trueman.

The prolix plot ultimately spirals into sheer incomprehensibility, but there are salvaging compensations. Under Ellen Geer’s able music direction, the actors manage some tight harmonies and sprightly song interludes. Tarbuck is pleasingly obtuse as the obnoxious Mrs. Tiffany, Marshall is amusingly offbeat as the man-hungry Prudence, and Tobias invests Seraphina with the right degree of simpering cluelessness.

Lewis stands out as the ersatz count, a chef by trade whose grandiose attempts to rise above his station are doomed to failure. However, Thad Geer could have managed a bit more twinkle with the insufferably righteous Trueman, whose dour didacticism wears thin in this farcical context.

*

‘Fashion’

Where: Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga

When: In repertory, call for times.

Ends: Oct. 2

Price: $15 and $25

Contact: (310) 455-3723, www.theatricum.com

Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes