Don't Dress for Dinner

   This is another entry in the "Shows I thought I wrote about but discovered I did not" category. A few seasons ago, there was a hugely successful Tony Award winning revival of Marc Cammoletti's Boeing-Boeing. I saw that revival, and it was funny, fresh, and farcical as you can imagine it being. I'm sure The Roundabout Theater company had the best of intentions when it decided to revive the sequel, Don't Dress for Dinner but those good intentions did not transfer into a good production.

    The play centers around the two leading men of the previous play. You don't need to have seen Boeing Boeing to appreciate Don't Dress for Dinner and it's probably better that you haven't, because due to the fact that there are many different translations of each play the characters names are different in each production. Roundabout chose (or perhaps didn't have a choice?) to use different names from the previous revival of Boeing Boeing. If you HAD seen the aforementioned revival, you might be a tad confused at the onset.

   Moving on from that point, this play is not as well written. As most sequels seem to go, Don't Dress for dinner is mostly a rehash of what we have already seen in the original. The cast is mostly serviceable. Ben Daniels and Adam James are underwhelming in the two male lead roles. They seem to not have very much chemistry with each other or the women they are playing against.

    The shining light of this play is Spencer Kayden who plays Suzette, the cook who gets mistaken for the mistress. She exudes charm, humor, and her dead pan is to die for. Jennifer Tilly also does well as Suzanne - the mistress mistaken for the cook. She overplays at times, but for the most part is spot on.

    The set design  by John Lee Beaty is wonderful (is his work ever not?). The costumes by William Ivy Long are also fantastic. John Tillinger has done a decent job as director, though some times his staging is confusing. A farce can be dangerous if not played properly, and Mr. Tillinger has staged the physical comedy exceptionally well.

    Don't Dress for Dinner is certainly nothing to write home about. As you can tell from my writing, it wasn't the best of productions, which may have made the play look worse than it is. It would be interesting to someday see both plays in repertory together. I can see this play being done quite a bit in stock or community theater productions.

   Don't Dress for Dinner closed on Broadway at The American Airlines Theater on June 17, 2012 after 61 performances and 32 previews.