I doubt I'll ever react with such out-of-control glee as I did at 16 when I saw the original Broadway cast. But I have enjoyed subsequent productions, especially the Old Vic's and I'm. glad you mention Jamie Glover, who was terrific and whom I thought would be a bigger name. (He was also the best Lord Goring in An Ideal Husband I have ever seen at Chichester- featuring the original original Dotty Otley, Patricia Routledge- and found the very tricky balance between outrageous and witty dandy and implausibly heterosexual womaniser, It's the first production where I didn't feel awful for poor Mabel Chiltern and what their married life would be like.)
Another Noises Off I remember was when where the real-life parallels threatened to overwhelm Frayn's play: the Lloyd was a former theatre school head who had begun a relationship with a student, who was playing Brooke; the actual director was his successor who had begun a relationship with another student who was the actress playing Poppy. (Both were relationships which lasted years and years but which even then seemed a bit...off.)
I'm sure it wasn't the only Noises Off to have real-life parallels! |
