Snappy performances can’t save ‘By Jeeves’
P.G. Wodehouse, who wrote the lyrics for several Broadway hits, once described his approach to writing novels as “making the thing a sort of musical comedy without music.”
Teaming up with playwright Alan Ayckbourn (book and lyrics), Andrew Lloyd Webber took this insight and ran with it, adding the music to create “By Jeeves,” now receiving its Milwaukee premiere in a Windfall Theatre production being directed by Carol Zippel.
Recognizing Jeeves for the brilliant stage manager that he is, Ayckbourn and Webber decided that this time around, Jeeves won’t just fix Bertie Wooster’s life. Jeeves will also rescue a Bertie Wooster show: Jeeves’ young gentleman is starring in a church-sponsored charity fundraiser, for which he intends to entertain the guests by playing the banjo.
Unfortunately, Bertie’s banjo has just been stolen. Since the show must go on, Jeeves (Ben George) hits on the idea of regaling the audience with tales from Bertie’s life (most of them drawn from “Right Ho, Jeeves” and “The Code of the Woosters,” for you Wodehouse fans keeping score). Would-be thespians attending the church benefit are tapped as extras.
We, therefore, get two levels of mishap: bungling, improvising performers stage stories in which Bertie (Cleary Breunig) also flirts with disaster — most of it involving mistaken identity and a trio of women who complicate Bertie’s carefree existence.
Alicia Rice (who doubles as choreographer) is spot-on as Honoria Glossop, Bertie’s athletic, take-charge ex-fiancée.
Liz Mistele is a stitch as Honoria’s temperamental opposite: the dreamily daffy Madeline Basset.
Amanda J. Hull showcases her first-class pipes in embodying Stiffy Byng, faking an engagement with Bertie but in love with Stinker Pinker (Mitch Weindorf). Don’t ask; while Wodehouse’s plots are exquisitely constructed, they’re also daft and, ultimately, beside the point.
Hull is one of several vocal standouts in this cast, which harmonizes beautifully under Paula Foley Tillen’s musical direction while delivering frequently witty songs reminiscent of Noël Coward.
Buoyed by Ayckbourn’s writing, Webber’s score does what Webber scores rarely do: It stays nimble and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Ditto these performers, who can be delightful in numbers like “Love’s Maze,” a bouncy, smartly choreographed valentine to fools in love.
There’s little that’s smart and bouncy about this show’s sagging book, which transforms Wodehouse’s exquisite farcical send-up of upper-crust Brits into a poor man’s version of “Noises Off.”
The result is painful, overthe-top performances from several of this cast’s male actors, each of whom has delivered much better work.
The problem isn’t as much this production’s overacting as this show’s framing device, which overeggs Wodehouse’s already rich pudding. “By Jeeves” is infamous as Webber’s only flop; it closed in 1975 after fewer than 40 performances. Windfall is staging a retooled, modestly successful version launched in 1996. But despite the above-noted pluses, it’s still a subpar show.
“By Jeeves” continues through May 20 at Village Church Arts, 130 E. Juneau St. For tickets, visit windfall theatre.com. Read more about this production at TapMil waukee.com.