‘Don’t Dress’ Goes Froth and Conquers Wary Laguna Director

LAGUNA BEACH — Andrew Barnicle wasn’t all that optimistic when he sat down to read “Don’t Dress for Dinner.”

The Laguna Playhouse’s artistic director was familiar with author Marc Camoletti’s best-known comedy, “Boeing Boeing,” a frantic stage hit in France before becoming a frantic 1965 movie hit for Jerry Lewis. Barnicle wondered if “Don’t Dress for Dinner” would be more of the same lowbrow high jinks.

“I first came across it three years ago [when an] actor friend who had done a summer-stock production passed the script to me,” Barnicle recalled. “He said it was a sure-fire audience-pleaser, but I was skeptical. The title even sounded dinner-theaterish to me.

“And, of course, I knew about ‘Boeing Boeing,’ [and that] didn’t help my confidence. I held it for two months then finally sat down and read it. I was surprised. I was by myself and just started laughing out loud.”

Barnicle decided “Don’t Dress for Dinner” was good enough to start 1997 for the playhouse. The comedy gets its Los Angeles-Orange County area premiere at the Moulton Theater with previews tonight and Wednesday. The regular run opens Thursday.

Barnicle, who is directing this production, defines the play as farce, a fast comedy of manners big on sexual innuendo and ripe wordplay. And he concedes that it’s nothing more than lightweight, a description that seems apt considering the plot.

In “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” everything starts easily enough as Bernard, believing his wife, Jacqueline, is going out of town, invites his mistress, Suzanne, over for a couple of days of fun. Bernard thinks he has it all under control and, just so the neighbors aren’t suspicious, also has his friend, Robert, come over to play the role of Suzanne’s mate.

Things get sticky when it turns out that Robert is Jacqueline’s lover. Jacqueline, thrilled that Robert will spend the weekend, cancels her trip.

The play has been running on London’s West End for more than six years and consistently receives good reviews in England.

The Guardian wrote: “Hurtling along at the speed of light [this] farce is a near faultless piece of theatrical invention. Within seconds we are drawn into a delicious web of marital treachery which accelerates with classic symmetry to an all-star denouement.”

When “Don’t Dress for Dinner” hit the East Coast in the early ‘90s, however, the reception was less enthusiastic.

In 1992, the New York Times faulted the play when it opened in Connecticut. “It was a hit in Paris, it is a hit in London and as long as [it] bypasses Broadway, it can be a hit in summer-stock where, stereotypically, such erroneous comedies belong,” wrote a critic. “ ‘Don’t Dress for Dinner’ is remotely funny, not a disaster, and that’s as praiseworthy as it gets.”

Barnicle remains unfazed.

“It’s a good play in terms of approachability,” he said. “Admittedly, it’s more a play for the ‘80s; I mean it’s slightly dated [and] not politically correct. It’s about womanizers and adulterers. But that’s where it’s very funny as well.

“It has no redeeming social values whatsoever,” he continued, laughing. “And maybe we’ll get critical attention because of that. But it’s always good to have [a production that] packs the house. We’re not hurting any artistic values with this, [and] we always try to carve out a place for a good [and successful] door-slammer.”

In other words, Barnicle hopes “Don’t Dress for Dinner” will be fat box office.

*

He’s gone to some fairly unusual lengths in preparing the production, including flying to London to see the West End staging. He met there with Robin Hawdon, who’s adaptation is being used in Laguna.

Barnicle said he didn’t head to England just for “Don’t Dress for Dinner”--he visited several theaters to see plays that the Playhouse might want to stage--but added that his experiences with the comedy were enlightening . . . and a little disheartening.

His time with Hawdon was valuable, Barnicle remembered, but the West End performance gave him pause.

“I could see that it had run its course there, [and] I was actually very disappointed by the production,” Barnicle said. “It was more of a ‘Benny Hill’ approach, which I don’t intend to do.

“I had to reread it on the plane, which renewed my faith. Also, the audience [in London] was falling out of their chairs; that was heartening. . . . I think it can really be a crowd-pleaser.”

* The Laguna Playhouse’s production of Marc Camoletti’s “Don’t Dress for Dinner” previews tonight and Wednesday at 8 p.m. at the Moulton Theater, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. 8 p.m. $16. The regular run opens Thursday and continues through Feb. 2. Performances are Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m. and Sunday, 7 p.m. (except Feb. 2); matinees Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. $26-$30. (714) 497-2787.