I tend to forget that Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 1777 comedy The School for Scandal isn’t a verse play. Except for its prologue and epilogue, it is prose. But the rhythms of Sheridan’s comic vernacular have a bright, lyrical quality. Not for nothing has the play been cited as the greatest-ever comedy of manners.
Scandal, though, seems not to be mounted frequently these days, at least not in America. This production by Red Bull Theater (at the Lucille Lortel Theatre) newly exposes theatergoers to Sheridan’s singular comedic talents. That’s a good thing. But this is hardly a perfect rendition.
I wish that director Marc Vietor had more fully trusted Sheridan’s writing. Sometimes Vietor’s actors are engaged in crackling dialogue when we in the audience become aware of a musical underscoring wafting from the sound system. This is not just unnecessary—it’s distracting. You shouldn’t need those kinds of mood-enhancing effects with Sheridan. During scene breaks, louder musical cues—often whimsically slinky and reminiscent of the soundtrack for a Pink Panther movie—point out to viewers how amusing the proceedings are meant to be.
Several of the actors behave as though their characters were living in one of the zanier districts of Toontown. This is especially true for the play’s circle of notorious scandalmongers led by the nasty Lady Sneerwell (Frances Barber). Vietor introduces us to Sneerwell with a flatulence bit that seems aimed to puncture our notions of what a comedy of manners is about. As Mr. Snake, green-wigged Jacob Dresch preens and vogues and grimaces. Derek Smith as Mr. Crabtree—outrageously costumed by Andrea Lauer—comes off like Russell Brand impersonating Pepe Le Pew. At one point he gulps water from a vase of flowers.
Not all the actors play their roles as wild caricatures. Nadine Malouf creates an ingénue devoid of verve. Her character, Maria—the ward of Sir Peter Teazle (Mark Linn-Baker) and a romantic interest of sorts for both Surface brothers, Joseph (Christian Conn) and Charles (Christian Demarais)— is supposed to be a young woman whose charms may reform the dissolute Charles Surface. But the frowning Malouf does little to suggest such bewitching attributes.
Between the extremes of hysteria and enervation, fortunately, are actors who know how to play Sheridan’s brand of comedy and make it both amusing and identifiably human. They seem to understand that the conflicts Sheridan introduces are very real obstacles for his characters. Linn-Baker plays Teazle as a good-hearted, sensible man whose much-younger wife, Lady Teazle (the very fine Helen Cespedes), keeps him in a state of agitation. Her coquettish quarreling fires up his libido even as he dreads becoming emasculated. The Teazle scenes don’t push for laughs, but they earn many.
It’s no surprise that Dana Ivey (who earned a Tony nomination for playing Mrs. Malaprop in a 2004 production of Sheridan’s The Rivals) is excellent as the blindly hypocritical Mrs. Candour, who rails against gossip even while making an art of it. I also very much liked the spirited Demarais as Charles, whose alcohol-fueled swagger can’t mask the fact that he’s a good egg.
If all the performances here had the richness that Linn-Baker, Cespedes, Ivey, and Demarais bring to the game, this would be a stellar production. As is, it is a hodgepodge with some stellar moments.
