Word: laughter
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cast's spirited foolery inoculates the evening with laughter, and John Lithgow's pell-mell direction would probably secure a friendly salute from the dean of comic mayhem, George Abbott, now 88, who directed Boy Meets Girl the first time, 41 years...
...writing for the London Sunday Times, James Agate commented that Noel Coward, "whether as dramatist or composer, has worked invariably for the passing moment, for the present laughter rather than the applause of posterity...Whatever he does, the effect is theatrical, greasepainted." These lines serve as an appropriate epigraph for Coward's life and work, and also for Kirkland House Drama Society's finely acted and tightly directed production of Coward's comedy Present Laughter...
...Present Laughter is a light drawing room comedy, very proper and very British, much in the tradition of Oscar Wilde. As in the majority of Coward's plays, the plot is thin and somewhat contrived. The action transpires in the studio of star actor Garry Essendine, revolving around the amorous antics of the forty-ish stage idol and his claque of friends and admirers...
Director Chase deKay Wilson has preserved the sense of entertaining for the moment in her production of Present Laughter. The mood of the play is kept light and dialogue tumbles along at a brisk pace. As a result the play is never tedious despite its length (three full acts...
...Present Laughter is especially interesting as a period piece, for it represents a style of comedy that is no longer written for the stage. Noel Coward was a member of the British aristocratic leisure class and his characters were reflections of his own lifestyle. These days the stock medium for these characters is satire. Their frivolous preoccupation with style and good form seems merely ludicrous. They are difficult to identify with so it now seems more appropriate to laugh at them rather than with them. But despite these changes in attitude, Present Laughter is still an effective comedy because Coward...