Despite our habit of slighting designers in discussing theatrical productions, I suspect that all reviewers will pay serious attention to the designs for this entirely glorious London Assurance -- Brian Bedford's first go at directing this madly stylish treasure of elegant Victorian farce. He has not only proven himself a master of such witty comedies but actually played this lead role triumphantly in an earlier Broadway production. Even so, his masterstroke here was to persuade Desmond Heeley to come out of semi-retirement to design London Assurance for Bedford's Stratford production.
I might as well admit to a hopeless lack of objectivity here. Desmond Heeley is my favorite set designer and costume designer in the world -- for operas, ballets, musicals and plays of all kinds. He is also probably the most awarded and honored designer.
For this outrageously silly but brilliantly funny play, Heeley has provided a visual world that supports and heightens everything that occurs onstage. His gorgeous, pseudo-19th century proscenium and painted curtain set the style before the play begins. The audience applauds each set and laughs and applauds at many of the stunning but satirical costumes. On opening night, Bedford made sure that after all the curtain calls, Heeley would receive the final honor onstage and be congratulated on his 75th birthday, which occurred that evening.
The play works unabashedly to gain laughter, not thought. The folly and vanity of Sir Harcourt Courtly is, in every sense of the word, the play's central conceit. Courtly is a painted, overdressed, foppish London bachelor in his 60s, who imagines himself not only the ultimate exemplar of style and fashion but also the society's most desirable roue'. Boucicault's delicious dialogue and typically amusing comedy-of-manners characters (they have names like Dazzle, Meddle, Cool and Pert) lift what could be tedious ridicule of Sir Harcourt's exaggerated self-delusion into priceless absurdity. But, of course, such waggery must be played with impeccable style.
What plot there is concerns Sir Harcourt's desire to marry an 18-year-old heiress, Grace Harkaway, complicated by his debt-ridden son Charles' meeting Grace and their falling in love. Charles is, of course, pretending to be someone else, advised by his con-artist friend Mr. Dazzle. When we move from Sir Harcourt's London townhouse [appropriately fading and in disrepair] to his friend Squire Harkaway's stunning Yorkshire mansion, Charles and Dazzle talk the freewheeling, bawdy Lady Gay Spanker into distracting Sir Harcourt from Grace by flirting with him. The happy ending is predictable, but the knockabout comedy along the way is a delight.
Bedford, in wig and full regalia, makes an entrance at the country estate so outrageous that few actors could bring it off without seeming stupidly clownlike. Seana McKenna's Lady Spanker is almost his match for up-to-the-edge jesting. Brian Tree, as her subservient husband Adolphus Spanker, surely makes as much hilarity of his small role as any actor has. And the rest of the entirely adept supporting cast are a model ensemble.
Stratford's lighting wizard Michael J. Whitfield accommodates the performers ideally and lovingly insures the best possible appearance of Heeley's incomparable designs.
