THE PHILADELPHIA STORY. To 3 September.

London

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
by Philip Barry

Old Vic Theatre To 3 September 2005
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm
Runs 2hr 30min Two intervals

TICKETS: 0870 060 6628
Review: Timothy Ramsden 10 May

Solid gold revival of silver-age American comedy.In 1939, as Europe groped into war, Broadway audiences were toasting Katherine Hepburn and other theatrical luminaries in Philip Barry's comedy of marriage and family dysfunction sugared over by massive amounts of the mighty dollar. It confirmed Hepburn's (then rather dodgy) stardom and, despite being the play famously tuned-up in the 50s to become High Society, was a rare success for a playwright whose main output was experimental drama.

There's no whiff of experiment here. As Mendelssohn's Wedding March blares out and the curtain rises on a drawing-room full of the kind of busy activity rarely seen except when curtains rise on busy drawing-rooms, it's clear Jerry Zaks' production will play it straight. For 2 acts it works a treat.

But in the middle act the action gets serious, moving outside the Lord family's drawing-room. Only to the veranda, admittedly, but it's enough to knock the surface confidence of young Tracy Lord, about to marry dull, respectable George Kittredge instead of the irregular guy Dexter with whom she's previously eloped. She undergoes some self-examination, realising she's what Cole Porter's lyric would call the fair Miss Frigidaire'.

Acting and production stumble at these nocturnal self-revelations. It's not just that Jennifer Ehle hasn't quite established the ice-princess identity a tough job now that female sweeties delighted with male attention are no longer order of the day. Sandwiched between the 2 high comedy roles of Julia Mackenzie's spot-on matriarch and Talulah Riley's outspoken younger sister, Ehle has a tough role here.

There's something unconvincingly declamatory about the acting around her. Even Kevin Spacey, who turns a comic point with a sustained look or a louche angle on a chair-arm in the outer scenes, becomes actorishly emphatic with his more earnest night-time dialogue.

But it would be a harsh person who couldn't enjoy this high-class revival with its satire on reporters (the Philadelphia story' is an intended journalistic investigation into the Lords' private lives) and delight in personal quirks. For these, enjoy particularly Nicholas Le Prevost, creating comedy through precision-timing his eccentric relative's thought processes. Enjoy, while you're at it, the whole show.

Margaret Lord: Julia McKenzie
Tracy Lord: Jennifer Ehle
Dinah Lord: Talulah Riley
Alexander Lord: Damien Matthews
Thomas: Colin Haigh
Uncle Willie: Nicholas Le Prevost
Macauley Connor: D W Moffett
Elizabeth Imbrie: Lauren Ward
George Kittredge: Richard Lintern
C K Dexter Haven: Kevin Spacey (Adrian Lukis 20 June-6 August)
Seth Lord: Oliver Cotton
Elsie: Laura Brook
Mac: Eben Young
May: Claire Adams
Edward: Jeff Peterson
Parsons: Tim Beckmann
Maid: Lucy-Anne Holmes

Director: Jerry Zaks
Designer: John Lee Batty
Lighting: Hugh Vanstone
Sound: Fergus O'Hare
Costume: Tom Rand

2005-05-13 10:32:02