When an 8-foot-tall man rolls into the room, you pay attention.
When a highly coveted item nearly gets dropped, and dropped again, leading to a hilarious, show-stopping slow motion klutz ballet, you stare in amused amazement.
When a man jumps out of a window, or hides under a bed, or dashes through a soon-to-be-slammed door, you can’t wait for them to reappear — as somebody else, in a different part of the stage.
All to tell the quaint story of a man who went to visit his aunt and what transpired after that.
“Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense” at Hartford Stage is funny. Relentlessly funny. Insanely funny. The P.G. Wodehouse book it’s based on is already funny. This stage show, a London hit written by The Goodale Brothers and directed by Sean Foley, doesn’t stop trying to make it funnier.
Sometimes it gets too funny for its own good. But it never stops being funny.
“Jeeves and Wooster in ‘Perfect Nonsense” is the comedy you’ve been waiting for at Hartford Stage, where it runs through April 20.
Seriously. The season so far has given us the childhood terrors of “Make Believe,” the warfare of “Henry V,” the soul-crushing confessions of “The Engagement Party” and the street riots of “Detroit ’67.” As good as all those shows were, it’s nice to have one where nobody dies and reputations are saved not ruined.
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder, but “Perfect Nonsense” certainly packs in a lot of nonsense. It ramps up the delicate literary sensibilities of Wodehouse. It turns the adventures of the genial gentleman Bertie Wooster and his invaluable valet Jeeves from funny stories into wild slapstick.
Purists may well disapprove. “Perfect Nonsense” doesn’t build on Wodehouse’s characters. It keeps their basic attributes, then inflates them into punching bags. It adds a whole dimension of comedy to its retelling of the novel “The Code of the Woosters” — in which the hapless Bertie is encouraged by some women in his life to sneer at, then steal, a collectible “cow creamer.”
At the beginning of the show, Bertie (Chandler Williams) emerges beaming, and mentions that he was telling a story to his chum Bingo Little, who responded that the tale was so delightful that “You should go to the colonies and do this on the stage.”
So Bertie has rented Hartford Stage and intends to do a one-man show. When he instantly realizes that he hasn’t properly thought through this show of his, in walks Jeeves to the rescue. Jeeves has already constructed sets, prepared to play several roles in the drama and even enlisted a third man, a balding butler with a hacking cough called Seppings.
While Bertie remains his ingratiating insouciant self — regularly stopping the show to blithely comment on something clever that just happened, or inform us that “I don’t usually get out of the bath in front of 500 people in Connecticut” — Jeeves and Seppings keep the play on track. So “Perfect Nonsense” becomes a Wodehouse book pushed through the “Play That Goes Wrong” filter.
Williams is a nice departure from many of previous depictions of Bertie Wooster on stage and film. Williams isn’t boyish or stupid. He’ s more helpless than infantile, more oblivious than boneheaded. He’s silly — bending his legs a lot, laughing at his own jokes — without being stupid. In fact, he’s pretty darn charming.
He’s certainly the most developed of the three characters playing all those stereotypical obnoxious, haughty and self-obsessed other characters.
Arnie Burton as Jeeves and Eddie Korbich as Seppings are obedient servants, albeit ones who feel comfortably superior to their purported master. Korbich keeps a steady deadpan, unless he’s put on a wig and funny voice to play a different character. Korbich’s transformations are even more extreme — a dithering old woman, a ridiculously tall Fascist, a shopkeeper.
Credibility isn’t the issue — you don’t believe these men could stage the show they’re staging. The point is to keep the gags coming rapidly. “Perfect Nonsense” sets up rules of style and logic, then blows right through them.
A riotous romp, rough-hewn yet immaculately dressed “Perfect Nonsense” takes the cultured ingredients of a Wodehouse story — wit, status-consciousness, Jazz-age frivolity, the sense of adventure that existed when motorcars were still new — and adds bad taste bits about a man’s head buried in another man’s crotch. It’s an onslaught of laughter that lasts for more than two hours (with an intermission to regain your composure). Whether all those jokes serve the story, or whether it’s all too much, may depend on your stamina. Right ho, Jeeves!
JEEVES & WOOSTER IN PERFECT NONSENSE runs through April 20 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; and Sunday at 2 p.m., with added 2 p.m. matinees on March 30, April 3, 13 and 20, and added Sunday evening shows at 7:30 p.m. on March 24 and April 7. Tickets are $18 to $90. 860-527-5151, hartfordstage.org
Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com
