Too Soon For A NOISES OFF Revival?

[Matt Rogers]

Bring it on. It's a great farce.

[Gink]

I guess I'll dig out the DVD and try it again.We loved the high school production we saw so much that I bought the DVD to show my son--none of us were engaged so we turned it off--will give it another try.

[nasty_khakis]

I see Jan in the other role more. Dottie screams someone like Bernadette or other "legend" type older actress, especially one who's famous for comedy. Get a Dorris Roberts or Jessica Walters in the role.

And NINA. MUST. PLAY. BROOKE. If anyone can live up to Katie Finneran...

[Jordan Catalano]

The more I think about it, the more I think Bernadette would be a total dream as Dottie. I've always wanted to see her in a play!

[frogs_fan85]

The 2001 revival was the first show I ever saw on Broadway and I would love to see another production. I've been working on getting my playbill signed ever since and I'm nearly done. I tried to see the West End production last January, but every night I could go while I was there was sold-out.

[jnb9872]

I think what some people find lacking in the movie is the irreplaceable energy of a live audience watching what is likely the single funniest script of the last 50 years acted on its feet in front of them. There's no separation, no filter, and a thousand other people just as breathless in ecstasy as you are. The movie, no matter its best intentions and execution (and I love so much about the movie... John Ritter RIP), simply can't get that special oomph that a live performance has that puts Noises Off over the top.

That said, yes... since the last revival closed, we've had 3 Cat on a Hot Tin Roofs, 2 Virginia Woolfs, 2 Streetcar Named Desires, 2 Glengarry Glen Rosses and 2 Cyrano de Bergeracs. The revival-window is clearly not what it once was, if it ever was anything to begin with...

[Jordan Catalano]

I wish Angela Lansbury would have played Dottie at some point.

[Wynbish]

Would Julie White be a good Dottie?

[newintown]

The biggest flaw in the movie (to me) is that none of the cast could play British convincingly, so they had to change it to Americans touring in a Brit play, adding an unnecessarily weird filter on top of an already complicated play. On top of that, the concept of a touring play in England is entirely different from that of a tour in the US, and it's a concept most Americans just don't understand.

That was one reason I found the Lupone/Gallagher revival so unfunny - an almost total lack of Englishness. When Brooke is the comic center of your cast, something is deeply wrong. It didn't help that much of that cast also seemed old and physically tired; yes, the action of the play is draining, but in farce, the actors can't ever sit down.

[Reginald Tresilian]

I think it's possible to like the play if you've seen the movie first, but the reverse of this is not true.

[Wynbish]

I like both, but I've only read the play numerous times. The movie is the closest thing I've seen to a staged production.

[madbrian]

It is never, Never, NEVER too soon for a revival of Noises Off. I saw a production in NJ a couple of years ago, and Harriet Harris was brilliant as Dottie.

I also think Judy Greer would be terrific as Brooke.

[yankeefan7]

IMO- I hope not, this was one of the worst things I have ever seen on Broadway. Like another poster said, the continous slamming of doors is not great comedy. It may be funny once or twice but gets old real quick.

[AC126748]

I've always found Jan Maxwell's humor drier, more cerebral, something that doesn't immediately scream "Dotty Otley" to me. I'm not saying she couldn't turn in a wonderful performance--the woman is amazing, and I'll see her in anything--but if I were casting a new production of this play, hers probably wouldn't be the first name on my list.

I'm loving the idea of Arianda or Greer as Brooke.

[slmlbl]

Nina as Brooke would have me there alone.

I LOVE this show and would love to see it on Broadway again.

Can we import Catherine Tate and age her up for Dottie?! Can we? Please. Even as Belinda/Flavia will do.

[morosco]

Did those that speak negative of the show see the original Broadway production or the lackluster revival with Patti LuPone?

[madbrian]

Jane Leeves might be right for Dottie. She's about five years younger than Loudon was when she played the role, and Frasier employed a lot of similar comedy to Noises Off.

[newintown]

" Did those that speak negative of the show see the original Broadway production or the lackluster revival with Patti LuPone?"

I saw both (the original production with the original and replacement casts), as well as several other productions.

I think the play is brilliant, but the movie strikes me as mostly a mistake, and that revival as really misdirected and badly cast (with the exception of Finneran).

If you're implying that seeing only the revival could conceal the play's merits, I agree.

[Rodgerdodger]

So I see that Jane Curtin played Dottie after Patti. Did anyone see her? I ask because I'm having a hard time seeing her in the role.

[Scripps2]

I think Noises Off, like A Chorus Line, is so much a piece for the theatre that it is impossible to capture its greatness on film.

[sabrelady]

that cast also seemed old and physically tired;

Can't agree- T. R Knight was exactly right for his newbie techie, as was Katie Finneran as the( only) slightly past her sell by date sexpot . Patti's Dottie came across as egzacly what the character is - rapidly aging fomer leading lady who missed becoming a star ( probably by a mile) and is trying to use the last gasp of her fame to make a bit of money on the tour. Most of these characters are a bit old and tired if they've come to doing a 2nd rate comedy in 3rd rate bookings!

[Jordan Catalano]

That's actually an excellent point about these characters. It's not exactly the Lunts doing a new play on the Broad-Way.

[SonofRobbieJ]

Yes...but it really only works when you have expert actors playing terrible ones.

I thought Knight and Finnernan were magnificent in the revival. I also liked Faith Prince a great deal. The rest of the cast didn't quite gel for me. Talented, each and every one. Just perhaps not for this particular show.

[Jordan Catalano]

Of course the actual cast playing the parts need to be as talented as the Lunts. But the characters they're playing...not so much. And Patti was was drunk a lot on stage, wasn't she? That was part of the whole ordeal with Gallagher, if I'm not mistaken.

[J52]

I have not heard this rumor...

[Jordan Catalano]

Huh?