(Cover Photo: The CAST of "NOISES OFF" by Michael Frayn, now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until December 22, 2024. Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)


By Kevin T. Baldwin

METRMAG Reviewer

# 774-242-6724   

“And on we go. Dotty in the kitchen, wildly roasting sardines. Freddie and Belinda waiting impatiently outside the front door. Gary and Brooke disappearing tremulously into the bedroom. Time sliding irrevocably into the past."

                                                              - ("Lloyd Dallas") / Michael Frayn

Lyric Stage Company

Presents Michael Frayn's Hilarious

"NOISES OFF"

Written by Michael Frayn

Directed by Ilyse Robbins° 

Cast Includes: Amy Barker* as “Dotty Otley,” Grace Experience* as “Brooke Ashton,” Dan Garcia as “Tim Allgood,” Eliza Fichter as “Poppy Norton-Taylor,” Michael Jennings Mahoney* as “Frederick Fellows,” Joseph Marrella* as “Garry Lejeune,” Chip Phillips* as “Selsdon Mowbray,” Samantha Richert* as “Belinda Blair,” Lewis Wheeler* as “Lloyd Dallas” 

Additional Creative Team: 

Scenic Design - Erik Diaz**; Costume Design - Seth Bodie**; Lighting Design - SeifAllah Salotto-Cristobal**; Sound Design - Andrew Duncan Will**.

* Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

** Represented by United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829 of the IATSE

° Stage Directors and Choreographers Society

Performances:

November 15, 2024 through December 22, 2024 

(Contact Box Office for Exact Times) 

All performances to be held at LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON, 140 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA 02116

TICKETS:

Contact the Box Office at # 617-585-5678 or go to lyricstage.com

BUY TICKETS

COVID 19 PROTOCOLS

Contact Venue for Most Updated COVID-19 Safety Protocols and Information.

Just in time for the holidays, Lyric Stage Company gives us the gifts of gaffes, guffaws, slapstick and pratfalls in the painfully funny "NOISES OFF" now through December 22^nd.    

Even after 42 years, Michael Frayn’s "NOISES OFF" is considered by many to be the “gold standard” of intense physical farce, possibly inspiring subsequent similar shows such as the “Goes Wrong” series. 

The “painstakingly constructed” three-act comedy has become a staple non-musical for many theatre groups. 

"NOISES OFF" has aged well and still is one of the funniest shows ever produced and now the Lyric Stage creative team and cast has done an exceptional job with the material. 

Originally produced in 1982, the scripted farce by Frayn is challenging for any director as it allows for very little “wiggle room” in its staging. 

Even looking at the set, no matter where one might see this show staged, it varies only slightly in construction and appearance because nearly every inch of the set is not just there for trappings – it is literally its own character in the show. 

(Photo: Amy Barker as “Dotty Otley" in a scene from "NOISES OFF" by Michael Frayn, now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until December 22, 2024. Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)

"NOISES OFF" is like a finely woven farcical tapestry where, as you tug upon a single plot thread, the rest of the subsequent events begin to magnificently unravel. 

Even in Frayn’s stage directions, the author has mapped out every single movement for the actors, and any intended deviation from those instructions is almost impossible. 

This makes for some major challenges in staging "NOISES OFF"

Fortunately, under director Ilyse Robbins, the Lyric Stage Company cast and creative team were completely up to meeting these challenges.

Robbins has finely choreographed much of the action, especially during the show’s second act which requires literal choreography at times.

Robbins has also added occasional “flourishes” to some required movements, yet never to the point where it detracts from Frayn’s construct. 

One would be hard pressed to find another set so “blueprinted” as this one for "NOISES OFF" by Frayn.   

There is very little on the two-level set that is not specifically instructed to be there and/or to be used for a specific purpose. 

There are two intermissions and, if you are a “theatre geek,” stay for those intermissions to watch the phenomenal set crew as it splits the set in half to be able to turn the monstrous set around for the second act, and then swap it back around again for the show’s final act. 

The "NOISES OFF" set is impressive albeit an extremely complex monstrosity, requiring a massive, concerted effort to turn the behemoth around (twice).

(Photo: Joseph Marrella as “Garry Lejeune” and Grace Experience as “Brooke Ashton” in a scene from "NOISES OFF" by Michael Frayn, now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until December 22, 2024. Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)

 The actors in "NOISES OFF" are staging a tour for the bedroom farce “Nothing On,” directed by the world-weary Lloyd (Lewis Wheeler) who has been engaged in his own bedroom farce, sleeping around with gorgeous young actress Brooke (Grace Experience) and also his assistant stage manager Poppy (Eliza Fichter). 

Each act presents a different point in time of the “Nothing On” production with the first act showing the set (of a modified English country home) from the front as the cast conducts their final rehearsal before opening night. 

The play begins fairly routine but, as the ridiculous intertwining subplots build, the performers ultimately find themselves performing at breakneck speed with hilarious (if occasionally looking near-fatal) results. 

During the second act, we observe the “behind the scenes” antics of the cast backstage as another performance of the show takes place. 

Then, in the final act, we see the cast at their absolute lowest point in the tour, with the set turned around again to the front view. 

As we meet the "NOISES OFF"/”Nothing On” characters, through all performers and staff antics of this “show-within-a-show,’ what ensues is a humorous plethora of bangs, bruises and pratfalls, lovers trysts gone horribly awry, and unbelievably incompetent acting (by the fictional cast, not by the terrific Lyric Stage cast). 

Wheeler is exceptional as Lloyd, who must not only deal with his incompetent cast but also with the startling news that one of the two women is pregnant with his child. 

Fichter as Poppy is delightful in the role of passive-submissive Poppy, who is aided by Lloyd’s stressed out assistant stage manager Tim (Dan Garcia). 

While valiantly trying to keep the show going albeit under the worst possible conditions, as the frazzled Tim, Garcia was also extremely funny. 

(Photo: Michael Jennings Mahoney as “Frederick Fellows” with Samantha Richert as “Belinda Blair” in a scene from "NOISES OFF" by Michael Frayn, now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until December 22, 2024. Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)

Further confounding matters for Lloyd are the numerous backstage romances and shenanigans of his other performers in “Nothing On.” 

This includes one of the show’s backers, middle aged actress Dotty (Amy Barker), who has become involved with jealous, much younger, very handsome and incredibly unfocused leading actor, Garry (Joseph Marrella). 

Barker is delightfully droll as Dotty while Marrella is versatile as the talkative Garry who, despite his otherwise amicable nature, seems unable to speak in fully-thought out or complete sentences. 

Experience is absolutely hilarious as the stunning Brooke, who is utterly limited as an actress and incapable of ad-libbing when things go wrong on stage, resulting in some of the show’s funniest moments. 

Brooke seems “programmed” only to say the lines she has been given, without exception, especially during the tumultuous events in the final act. 

Director Robbins also seems to have imbued Experience with some flamboyant flourishes in some of Brooke’s mannerisms or movements which elevate the character beyond its (ahem) "singular-dimensional" appeal. 

It is mostly with the show’s third act and, in this case, an ill-advised adherence to the theatre maxim of “just keep going” that one can easily see the inspiration for similar shows such as the aforementioned “Goes Wrong” series. 

Other actors with personal entanglements include Freddy (Michael Jennings Mahoney), who always seems to have a penchant of proving much of “Murphy’s Law,” prone to nosebleeds and fainting under adverse conditions which, like Brooke, turns into a disastrous handicap. 

Like Marrella, Mahoney also executes much of the physical comedy throughout the show. 

(Photo: The CAST of "NOISES OFF" by Michael Frayn, now playing at Lyric Stage Company in Boston, MA. until December 22, 2024. Photo Credit: Mark S. Howard)

The eldest member of the unstable cast is the eccentric, deaf and oft-inebriated Selsdon (Chip Phillips). 

Phillips is tremendously funny as the simultaneously confused and confounding Selsdon character. 

Trying to ease things for Lloyd is Belinda (Samantha Richert) who (unsuccessfully) tries to act as a calming influence on the troupe (which utterly fails and hysterically falls apart). 

Richert gives a finely-tuned assertive performance as Belinda who begins with good intentions, serving as a much-needed and even-tempered diplomat for Lloyd. 

Yet Belinda, too, finds herself soon drawn into the ridiculous romantic escapades of the cast to the point where axes and other objects soon begin getting hurled around backstage. 

Under Robbins’ expert craftsmanship, the overall pacing of "NOISES OFF" never falters. 

Lyric Stage Company's "NOISES OFF" plays in Boston until December 22^nd and, filled with clever dialogue, slamming doors, pratfalls, bumbling slapstick…and sardines…this is a show that absolutely must not be missed. 

Coming up next at Lyric Stage Company will be "CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE OF JOY" by Lynn Nottage, beginning January 10, 2025.

For more information and tickets, contact the Box Office at # 617-585-5678 or go to lyricstage.com

BUY TICKETS

Approximately two hours, 30 minutes with two intermissions.

Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)

@MetrmagReviews

@Theatre_Critics

ABOUT THE SHOW

This side-splitting comedy brimming with slamming doors, wardrobe malfunctions, and flying sardines makes a perfect holiday outing for friends and family. 

Doomed from the start, the play-within-a play "Nothing On" is led by an exasperated director managing a company which includes a middle-aged has-been, an unseasoned bombshell, an overly-sensitive stage manager, and a half-deaf actor. 

They’re all on their way to an opening night that will leave everything in complete shambles both on and off the stage. 

It’s all out chaos as jealousies, egos, and seething rage spill out onto the stage resulting in a dizzying circus of missed entrances and exits, mixed-up lines, slamming doors, and falling trousers. 

It’s a fight to the finish as a cuckoo cocktail of disaster makes its way to the final curtain.

ABOUT THE LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON

Founded in 1974 and in residence at 140 Clarendon Street since 1991, THE LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON is Boston’s oldest resident theatre company. Our mission is to produce and present live theatre in Greater Boston with an intimate approach that promotes inclusivity and connection. THE LYRIC STAGE leads an effort to integrate live theater and theater education into the lives of all residents of greater Boston.

THE LYRIC STAGE OF BOSTON

140 Clarendon Street

Boston, MA. 02116

BOX OFFICE: 617-585-5678

WEBSITE: www.lyricstage.com