Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago’s “in yer face” originator, trading bulging facial veins and explosive monologues of familial trauma for a British sex-farce-within-a-sex-farce from 1982 with characters named Dotty and Poppy? Talk about bizarre programming, given the talents in this company and the specialty of what people do here.
It’s not that Steppenwolf can’t succeed with comedy (although the genre always will be a footnote in their auspicious history). I fondly recall a highly successful 1998 production of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart’s “The Man Who Came to Dinner,” as directed by the sitcom maestro James Burrows. And I have no lack of respect for Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off,” a brilliantly constructed and potentially very funny play much loved by theater people for how it captures the kind of backstage chaos that is more common than audiences think.
“Noises Off,” itself influenced by 1970s BBC sitcoms like “Fawlty Towers” and “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em,” went on to spawn other massively successful comedic franchises, most notably “The Play That Goes Wrong” (seen in Chicago in 2021) and spinoffs like “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” etc. “Noises Off” has been produced for years all over the world and was last done here, and very well, too, at the Windy City Playhouse in 2019.
But Frayn, now 91, has long moved on to great dramas like “Democracy” and “Copenhagen,” although no doubt is still cashing nice checks from “Noises Off.” And while Windy City Playhouse had a fresh idea for “Noises Off,” the production at Steppenwolf is as conventional as it goes, from the casting to the staging to the set by Todd Rosenthal, whose typically expansive work seems limited here, perhaps by the size of the Geffen Playhouse, with whom this Anna D. Shapiro-directed production is co-produced.
How is this staging? It depends on which of the three acts you are talking about. (If you’ve never had the pleasure, you see a dress rehearsal of a provincial British theater troupe doing a farce called “Nothing On” in Act 1, you see the backstage vista in Act 2, and finally watch a public performance in Act 3).
On opening night, Act 1 felt unsure of itself and overplayed. Act 2, which features highly choreographed theatrical business, was way too slow to fully work. Act 3 redeemed the show considerably, perhaps because the cast finally had their feet, confidence and mutual connection. That cast, by the way, is a mix of Los Angeles and Steppenwolf actors, as per the co-production set-up, with familiar Chicago pros Francis Guinan, James Vincent Meredith, Audrey Francis and Ora Jones joining up with Vaneh Assadourian, Amanda Fink, Rick Holmes, Andrew Leeds and Max Stewart.
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By far the best performance on the stage comes from Stewart, a deliciously understated young Chicago actor who plays the nervous stagehand Tim and best captures how farce intersects with a character’s internal panic. Leeds, familiar to many here from TV, also is consistently funny. This is a skilled crew overall, of course, and most everyone else at least has their moments, moments I might add that would be funnier if everything was moving more rapidly, thus raising the stakes. They’re kinda life and death, but only if you really put yourself in the shoes of the actors and believe in their realities. Here, sometimes you do, but sometimes it’s hard to see the crucial distinction between the outer and inner characters, which is vital to the show’s success. Perhaps that’s why the tech crew (Assadourian is the long-suffering stage manager) gets the most laughs.
By the end, I thought this show probably would work best for those who have not seen “Noises Off” before or have completely forgotten what happens. If you want a few laughs, you’ll likely find them, especially after a few more days of stage time; on opening, some of Guinan’s shtick greatly tickled me. But given the massive talents of this director and this company, “Noises Off” just seems like something that did not make a case for itself at Steppenwolf.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Noises Off” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Nov. 3
Where: Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St.
Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes
Tickets: $20-$148 at 312-335-1650 and www.steppenwolf.org
