Highly anticipated DON’T DRESS FOR DINNER disappoints on Broadway (photo by Joan Marcus)
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd St. between Broadway & Eighth Ave.
Through June 17, $67-$117
212-719-1300
www.roundabouttheatre.org
In April 2008, Marco Camoletti’s 1962 French farce, Boeing-Boeing, flew onto Broadway, eventually landing six Tony nominations and earning statuettes for Best Revival of a Play and Best Leading Actor (Mark Rylance). Capitalizing on that success, the Roundabout has brought back Camoletti’s Don’t Dress for Dinner, but there’s little appetizing about this supposed comedy. This tepid follow-up features several characters from Boeing-Boeing, once again caught up in romantic shenanigans. In a lovely chateau two hours outside of Paris, Bernard (Adam James) has planned to have his mistress, Suzanne (Jennifer Tilly), spend the weekend since his wife, Jacqueline (Tony nominee Patricia Kalember), will be visiting her mother. But when Jacqueline discovers that her lover, Robert (Ben Daniels), who also happens to be Bernard’s best friend, will be coming by as well, she cancels with her mother and instead decides to stay home, sending Bernard into a frenzy. When Suzette (Spencer Kayden), a cook Bernard hired for the evening, shows up, Robert mistakes her for his friend’s mistress, and soon everyone is caught up in an endless — indeed, it feels like it will never end — game of mistaken identity, overt and covert deception, and overblown slapstick. There are barely a few chuckles in Robin Hawdon’s adaptation, repetitively directed by John Tillinger. Don’t Dress for Dinner feels more like an extended episode of Three’s Company than a legitimate Broadway show, although the actors do try their darnedest with the ridiculously convoluted plot and drastically overcooked script.