Fallen Angels.

Fallen Angels" , Roundabout Theatre Companies production by Noel Coward is a play that is not produced very often. It is a wind sprint of 90 minutes with great acting :Kelli O'Hara as Julia Sterroll is one of Broadways biggest stars. Rose Byrne as Jane Banbury is the perfect counter part to Ms. O'Hara.

Written in the mid 1950's. the play is a little dated and stale by some measures. What keeps the audience engaged here though is twofold: the directing by Scott Ellis and the brilliant staging by Mr. Rockwell. David Rockwell has the audience transfixed on the set design. He captures the period perfectly with the deft life-like buildings peering through the Sterroll's Aristocratic townhouse in London, late 1920's.

Coward captures the funny as well as the airs put on by both woman. They both are upper-crust even though they weren't exactly proper ladies when they were younger. In fact, they both dated a sexy available Frenchman around the same time (maybe at the same time). The girls are practically giddy when they both find out that Maurice (Mark Consuelos) is coming for a visit.Part of the charm, as well as the fun, is how they plan and prepare for the gentleman caller, much to the chagrin of their husbands.While "Fallen Angels" never hits the high notes that Coward's other plays have, it does have some genuine good fun to it. The woman drink and smoke all evening and have little regard for the help and careless about anyone, even their husbands. The selfish woman treat themselves to what makes them happy. Coward suggests here that the woman are not at all in high society's morals and values, but rather lower class woman who married less worldly men as a means to an end.

In Ellis's direction, all four have quarrels over foolish things; things that are meaningless in the way of importance. Yet the two men who are awkward to begin with fight over trivial things. The woman have a different set of rules than their husbands, their quarrels are over more materialistic things ... status and position are their goals.

Coward's writing, his comedic signature is frenetic. In "Blithe Spirit" it is the supernatural and the people directly involved in the supernatural; in "Present Laughter", perhaps my favorite of Coward's, it is the patriarch who is run ragged. What is common place of Coward is that he knows how to dig up the laughs and incite humor into his plays. In "Fallen Angels", the laughs come but not like the other Coward plays that I have seen in the past. The plot just isn't deep enough to make this play great. Even with the great acting by the main characters, the very good direction, it languishes in the good, solid C range.

Is "Fallen Angels" worth seeing? Yes! The cast works well together; the direction clicks, the staging as well as the lighting bring intrigue to the show. The bright, open, airy sets with glam lighting works best for the old English plays. Here Rockwell gives us just that. The lighting too works well... open and bright. The actors are able to move about the set with ease and grace.

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Next up: Beaches! At the Majestic Theatre, Beaches, the great movie in the 90's is making its way to "The Great White Way". Like "Dog Day Afternoon", it will be interesting to see just how the play will adapted to the stage. Always a daunting task, Broadway sometimes gets it right; and sometimes gets it wrong. In "Dog Day" they got it right. Both the direction and the set were spot on. I am hopeful that Beaches will deliver to the degree that "Dog Day Afternoon" did.

With a few more shows left: "Joe Turner", The Rocky Horror", Becky Shaw" and "Beaches", this spring season was so far, one for the books. Every show has been lauded as sensational; a far cry from the fall season where dud after dud kept opening.

After the last show comes, a few are scheduled for after the Tony Awards in June. One at the Pels Theatre that looks interesting. It is this theater that last June brought an excellent show about the true story of Joey Mangone.

Broadway Bob Massimi, No Bull With Raging Robert, Tony Awards, Dramatists Guild, Drama League, Kelli O'Hara, Iran, Broadway, Noel Coward, London, England, New York City, CNN, Fox News, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Studio 54.