This weekend is your last chance to see a lesser-known Stoppard comedy about two clerks who let their hair down.
Tom Stoppard's On the Razzle, a comedy about two underdogs who attempt to escape their boredom by 'painting the town red' (and who, in the course of their adventures, lose their innocence), is being staged by Philadelphia's Wilma Theatre through Mar. 29.
The title is actually English slang for going out on the town. Author Stoppard readily admits that Razzle is based on the same 1842 comedy that inspired Hello, Dolly! "[It's] the almost mythic tale of two country mice," Stoppard says, "escaping to town for a day of illicit freedom, adventure, mishap and narrow escapes."
The director is Wilma artistic director, Jiri Zizka, who staged Stoppard's Travesties there in 1994.
Starring in Razzle are John Francis Brown, Joe Guzman, Harry Philibosian, Deborah Seif, Marcia Saunders, John Zak, Jackson Gay, Brian Jason Kelly, Patrick Tull, Rebecca Hunter Lowman, John Thomas Waite, Mercedes Herrero, Antoinette LaVecchia and Patrick Morris. Designing On The Razzle are David P. Gordon (set), Jerold R. Forsyth (lighting), and Janus Stefanowicz (costumes).
Remaining performances are Mar. 27 at 8 PM, The Wilma Theatre is at Broad and Spruce Sts. For tickets, $20-$36, call (215) 546-STAGE.
-- By Rebecca Paller and David Lefkowitz