Don't Dress For Dinner

The current show at Granite Theatre is the British farce, "Don't Dress for Dinner". This show is about Bernard planning an intimate evening with his mistress. Unfortunately his wife, Jacqueline, stays in town and his best friend is secretly having an affair with her. Throw in two cooks, mistaken identities and some fantastic slapstick routines and you have the makings of the madcap romp that ensues. Director Brian Olsen makes his debut as a director at Granite but has directed many children's shows in the past. His expertise at comic acting and directing shine through with his six member cast which is rewarded with a standing ovation at curtain call.   Brian leads his cast through some hilarious moments that leave the audience roaring out loud with laughter. The wrestling, spilling drinks, stomping on bugs, face slapping are wonderful to watch. He directs the show with a deft hand, making the most of the farcical situations the characters meet. Stage manager Sarah Gervasini keeps things running smoothly while Arthur Pignataro handles the lighting and sound. The set by David Jepson is a comic delight. His converted London barn with various rooms called the piggery, the cow shed and the hen coop are well used in this two level set where the performers are able to enter and exit from 5 different entrances. Leading the cast as the husband is Ian Ramsden who plays Bernard in a high state of anxiety and nervousness. He delivers the dialogue crisply and keeps things moving with his physical humor who delivers the goods in this farcical role especially when he tries to castrate Robert with the ice tongs when he discovers the affair. He also has to keep changing clothes because everything keeps getting spilled on him. I first reviewed him in "Cahoots" and "Move Over Mrs. Markham" at the Granite in the past. Phyllis Speice, a pretty brunette plays Jacqueline, the haughty wife with gusto. When she finds out about her husband's infidelity, she is aghast about it while she is doing the same thing. Jacqueline gives the other characters a tongue lashing while mistaking what is happening around her. Phyllis plays this character beautifully with her clever asides and double entendres. She gets to show off her comic chops when she sprays the two men and drops ice down the cook's bosom in a hilarious scene in the second act.   Keith Brayne who is a John Lithgow look-alike and act-alike, plays the other man in Jacqueline's life, Robert. Keith is a whirling dervish on the stage running to and fro to escape being beaten up or castrated by a jealous husband, doing many pratfalls and having a wrestling scene with Ian, too.(I last reviewed Keith in "It Runs in the Family" where he played an old man in a wheel chair who kept drinking all night long and spraying seltzer water at a cop's crotch.) He has wonderful facial expressions and his delivery of rapid fire dialogue is priceless.  Keith has some of the funniest lines in the show including "It's going to be a bumpy night" and "The hooker is a cooker". The biggest scene stealer in this show is Danielle Aube as Suzette. She is hilarious as the cook who is mistaken for the mistress and first appears looking very frumpy, wearing glasses with her hair up. Danielle delivers her lines perfectly whether in proper or lower class British accent. Her facial expressions are priceless as are her drunken scenes when she and Keith tango around the living room and when she hides the hush money down her blouse.(She demands 200 pounds every time a new requirement is added to the charade.) The funniest moment in the show is when the two men rip her maid outfit off and pull up this tiny black skirt to transform it into evening attire, pulling off a Gooch like transformation. Danielle is a joy to watch from start to finish and her exit with a full length sable coat caps off this wonderful performance with the audience applauding her for taking the coat with her while the others can't utter a word!   Claire Leatham plays Bernard's mistress, Suzanne. She is a statuesque, sexy blonde who makes the dumb bimbo role come alive and has some clever sarcastic lines, too. Claire struts around on high heels while making or I should say ruining dinner. She shows the jealous streak in the character when she slaps Bernard and then has a comical scene at the end when she wants to pay back this person for buying her a new sable coat that the cook took with her. Claire plays this dim bulb beautifully because in real life she speaks four languages fluently. (I reviewed both Danielle and Claire in "It Runs in the Family" last year with Keith and Greg in the cast, too.) Last but not least is Greg Blivens who plays the enormous, physically threatening character of George. Although he enters late in the second act, he delivers a powerhouse performance which keeps the crowd laughing at how the situation gets resolved with him knocking out the two men and having all the women on top of him to subdue his anger. Greg's interactions with the other performers is topnotch, too and when Keith pays him hush money as Suzette's Uncle Robert the laughs keep coming all night long. So for a fantastic, funny farce, be sure to call the Granite Theatre before the tickets for this show are sold out. Make sure you catch "Don't Dress for Dinner".    DON'T DRESS FOR DINNER ( 31 July to 30 August, 2009)  The Granite Theatre, 1 Granite Street,Westerly, RI  1 (401) 596-2341 or www.granitetheatre.com