A 2000 Tony Award winner for Copenhagen, Michael Frayn, here with his wife Claire, is back on Broadway, this time with a revival of his 1982 farce, Noises Off, which opened Nov. 1 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
Noises Off follows a rag-tag British theatre company over several months of the run of a tired sex farce called Nothing On. Frayn gives us a view of both the backstage antics of the troupe and the on-stage performance of farce they are playing. Act One shows the dress rehearsal, full of flubs, lapses and tentative choices that reveal the artists' temperaments. Act Two takes place backstage, a month later, during a performance, when the company begins sabotaging itself due to petty jealousies. Act Three is the final performance of the run of Nothing On, and, seen from the point of view of the audience again, the company destroys itself. Patti LuPone, Peter Gallagher, Richard Easton and Faith Prince star.
