a delightful farce

August 5, 2005 performance, reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

Even the hottest day in this scorching Berkshire summer could not dim the glories of the opening of Tom Stoppard’s bedazzling On The Razzle at the opening of the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Granted Stoppard is always a gem, but this particular play takes a huge and talented cast and and all-around glittering production to garner the ingenious lines he gives the characters and the added twists he devises to the well-known plot.

The plot was first borrowed from a 19th century farce by Viennese playwright Johann Nestroy, popular in his day, but forgotten until mid-twentieth century when Wilder discovered him and his play Einen jux will er sich machen and adapted it into his highly successful The Matchmaker (later to become the musical Hello, Dolly).

The plot centers on two young clerks from a provincial shop who, in the absence of the boss, decide to lock up the place for a holiday razzle in Vienna where they feel real life goes on. They go and it does, in more fantastic ways than they could have imagined.

Weinberl (Robert Stanton), head clerk in a frantic moment in a stylish boutique, announces that he is Frau Fischer’s husband (name conveniently supplied by a package on the counter.) This might have sufficed had not Frau Fischer (Margaret Colin) not only arrived for the package but unaccountably gone along with the bluff by a man she has never seen.

Suddenly Weinberl and his new “wife” along with his assistant Christopher (John Lavelle) and the boutique owner Madam Knoor (Cynthia Mace) are off on the town in a mad razzle that includes mistaken identity, Scottish capes from the boutique, scrambles up and down ladders and almost encounters with their boss Zanger (Michael McKean) who is also in Vienna for the day, eager to see his hoped-for fiancée Madam Knoor.

Though all these characters (and they are only a few from the cast of 40-some that populate this busy and beguiling stage during the swift two hours of the play) are well cast, beautifully costumed, and well up to the physical and especially the vocal demands of their roles, it is impossible to credit all.

This reviewer found Margaret Colin and Robert Stanton most appealing, achieving a level of reality in the midst of the farce. There is even a pleasant postal surprise for them at the end of the play.

Michael McKean was excellent in his smaller role of the clerks’ boss and especially effective as he donned his new uniform and found that, buttoned, the flashy green jacket would make it difficult to sit down in the brilliant red pants. He was autocratically opposed to Corey Brill as suitor for his niece (Amber Voiles) until he suddenly found out the young man had money. The two young people were charming and appealing as their love plight swept them into the mad plot and the Scottish cape fiascos.

And a coachman (Kevin McClarnon) with an absolutely lovely horse was delightful in a small but pivotal role.

The sets, from the busy opening one where old-fashioned little coin boxes hummed back and forth on wires to the cage of the cashier, to the Vienna drawing room of Fraulein Blumenblatt (Brenda Wehle) which was unexpectedly invaded by many of the characters, were all one could wish.

This is, all in all, a delightful farce. Enjoy.

Oscar is being well-served in Williamstown.

On the Razzle
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