BWW Reviews: FUNNY MONEY at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre

To craft a good farce, a playwright needs certain elements to guarantee success: mistaken identities, preposterous situations and broadly drawn characters. To elevate that farce to something wonderful, a theater producer adds other much-needed elements, including a creative director, a capable cast and colorful costumes and sets. And for that farce to become something completely other-worldly, it needs an attentive audience, eager to laugh and to add their own energy to the mayhem happening on the stage before them.

This confluence of events and elements has resulted in the perfect summer diversion at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville's venerable theatrical venue, with their production of Ray Cooney's Funny Money. Directed with a certain twistEd Grace by the multi-faceted Nate Eppler and performed by a top-notch band of actors, Funny Money is - put simply - delightfully daft and expertly played.

Cooney's premise is the stuff that all great farce is made of: mild-mannered Henry Perkins accidentally picks up a briefcase full of money while on the way home to celebrate his birthday in typically mild-mannered fashion. When he discovers his mistake, he stops off for a stiff one at the local pub, but his actions there look suspicious to an off-duty police officer who thinks the stiff one Henry is looking for can't be found in a glass. And all this happens offstage, before the actual onstage hilarity ensues

Suffice it to say that Henry's life will never be the same and his poor wife, Jean, and his friends Bill and Betty - not to mention a couple of policemen and a taxi driver - will go along for the ride, like it or not. It's a confoundingly complex tale of comedic woe that is brought engagingly to life by director Eppler and his tremendous casT. Fast-paced and wonderfully wacky, Funny Money is British farce at its very best, archly high-brow when needed and typically low-brow to ensure that every audience member remains riveted to the action transpiring onstage before them.

Eppler does a fine job of keeping the action moving at a quick clip and his attention to detail adds to the overall effect. The result is a superbly performed three-act play that is over almost before you know it

Among Eppler's superb performers is the thoroughly delightful David Compton, whose multi-dimensional portrayal of the play's nebbishy lead, Henry Perkins, is on-target and, somehow, completely unpredictable as he eschews stereotype for a genuninely vivid performance. Paired with Compton as his onstage wife is the lovely Jenny Noel, whose natural grace gives her character a believable bearing and carriage that makes her ultimate undoing (in an alcohol-fueled haze) absolutely and hysterically funny.

As Henry and Jean's best friends (if you can call them that, given the relationship drawn by playwright Cooney), Eppler has cast the deliciously off-kilter pair of Jennifer Richmond and Dietz Osborne, who again are at their comedic best in these roles. The beautiful Richmond's timing is superb and she embues her character with a randy charm; Osborne, who time after time proves he is the consummate comedic actor, matches Richmond with his intensely felt performance.

With Compton, Noel, Richmond and Osborne as the play's nominal leads, you know you're in for a good time, but with the able support of Chris Bosen, Mike Baum, Johnny Peppers and Adam Burnett, the whole production becomes - well, how best to express this? - funnier. Bosen is ideal as the on-the-make police officer who follows Henry home from the pub to shake him down, as it were, and Peppers is sufficiently uptight in a very British sort of way that renders his character completely ineffective. Baum plays his broadly drawn cab driver with ease, while Burnett makes the most of his brief time onstage.

Billy Ditty's costume design for the play's eight characters is wonderful, as expected, and the clothes in which he dresses the characters obviously help the actors in developing their onstage personas. Credit is due, as well, to Eppler and Peppers who do double-duty as the set designers for the play, providing a cleverly executed backdrop for the play's hijinks.

- Funny Money. By Ray Cooney. Directed by Nate Eppler. Produced by Janie and John Chaffin. At Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre. Through July 17. For details, visit the company website at www.dinnertheatre.com; for reservations, call (615) 646-9977.

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