Noises Off, the new Broadway revival of Michael Frayn's sex-farce-within-a-sex-farce, ends its money making run Sept. 1 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
The staging directed by Jeremy Sams (inspired by his recent London revival) welcomed a new cast in July, led by Jane Curtin. Noises Off opened Nov. 1, 2001, starring Patti LuPone and Peter Gallagher. Katie Finneran won a Best Featured Actress Tony Award for it, playing a klutzy actress, and is now in Hollywood shooting a sitcom.
By the close, Noises Off will have played 19 previews and 349 regular performances.
The current company also features with Carson Elrod as Tim Allgood, Paul Fitzgerald as Garry Lejeune, Kaitlin Hopkins as Belinda Blair, John Horton as Selsdon Mowbray, Byron Jennings as Frederick Fellowes, Leigh Lawson as Lloyd Dallas, Kali Rocha as Brooke Ashton and Mandy Siegfried as Poppy Norton-Taylor.
The staging was nominated for a 2002 Tony Award for Best Revival. Producers are The Ambassador Theatre Group, Ltd., Act Productions, Ltd., Waxman/Williams, USA OSTAR Theatricals and Nederlander Presentations, Inc. It was previously announced that the show had made back its investment five months into the run. *
Jane Curtin began juggling a plate of sardines, a telephone receiver and a handful of other props July 16, taking over the Patti Lupone role.
In Michael Frayn's comic conceit, the audience follows the misfortunes of a fifth-rate British troupe as it rehearses (Act One), performs (Act Two) and destroys (Act Three) a British sex farce called Nothing On. The points of view change during Noises Off, offering a front of-house rehearsal, a backstage perspective during a performance and another view from the house, several months into the run.
Curtin — famed as an original cast member of "Saturday Night Live," and TV's "Kate and Allie" and "Third Rock From the Sun" — plays Dotty Otley, a faded TV star touring the provinces.
The original cast, which also boasted Faith Prince, Richard Easton, Thomas McCarthy, T.R. Knight, Robin Weigert and Edward Hibbert, exited July 14.
Curtin recently appeared in the Westport Country Playhouse production of Our Town.
Jennings is a critics favorite, lauded for both his comic and dramatic turns in plays such as Waste, The Man Who Came to Dinner and The Underpants. Rocha—who takes over the dumb blonde role that won Finneran a Tony Award—is well schooled in playing slightly vacuous sexpots. Past credits include The Altruists and The Constant Wife.
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Frayn's comedy, still remembered for literally having people laugh themselves out of their seats, had a popular, Tony Award- nominated run on Broadway in the 1983-84 season. It has become a favorite in stock, regional, university and amateur theatres.
Former New York Times critic Frank Rich wrote, "Noises Off was, is, perhaps always will be the funniest play written in my lifetime." A film version starred Carol Burnett.
The first Broadway run of the intensely clever show — which had a Playbill within the Playbill to tell of the hilarious history of the fictional folk putting on Nothing On — also played the Brooks Atkinson. The fictional "programme" for Nothing On will again be found within the genuine Playbill of Noises Off.
Frayn won the 2000 Tony Award for his play, Copenhagen. Noises Off was nominated for a Best Play Tony Award. The original London run of the play spanned 1982-1987. The 1983-84 Broadway staging played 553 performances.
