Images: 
Total Rating: 
***
Opened: 
March 30, 2003
Ended: 
June 15, 2003
Country: 
USA
State: 
New York
City: 
New York
Company/Producers: 
David Pugh, Joan Cullman, Mike Nichols, Hamilton South, Charles Whitehead & Stuart Thompson presenting Mike Nichols & David Pugh Production.
Theater Type: 
Broadway
Theater: 
Lyceum Theater
Running Time: 
2 hrs
Genre: 
Farce
Author: 
Sean Foley, Hamish McColl, Eddie Braben
Director: 
Kenneth Brangah
Review: 

Some people love old-time Vaudeville: Smith & Dale in "The Doctor Sketch" on "The Ed Sullivan Show," The Three Stooges, British knockabout comedy and eccentric dancing. If you're one of them, you'll love the ridiculous, slapstick, corny, very British comedy revue, The Play What I Wrote. Sean Foley, Hamish McColl and Toby Jones recreate the antique shtick with flair, falls, and fol-de-rol. Foley takes John Cleese's physicality to new heights of dementia with a rubber body like they don't make any more. Act 2 does a sendup of "The Scarlet Pimpernel" utilizing a guest star. The night I saw it, John Lithgow cavorted with them, and it's always fun to see a star being ridiculous.

The absurd set and costumes by Alice Power, particularly in the second-act dungeon scene, are hilarious, and so is the choreography by Irving Davies and Heather Cornell. If this foolish, funny nonsense is your cup of balderdash, you'll have a great time.

Parental: 
mildly risque humor, gunshots
Cast: 
Hamish McColl, Sean Foley, Toby Jones.
Technical: 
Choreography: Irving Davies & Heather Cornell; Set/Costumes: Alice Power; Lighting: Tim Mitchell; Sound: Simon Baker; PSM: Nancy Harrington; Casting: Ellen Lewis. Songs: Gary Yershon; PR: Boneau/Bryan-Brown; GM: Stuart Thompson Productions.
Critic: 
Richmond Shepard
Date Reviewed: 
April 2003