This ‘Dinner’ satisfies, though it could be heartier
The playbill for “Don’t Dress for Dinner” reminds us that the farce is set in the 1990s so that might be why the preshow music includes the themes to such ‘90s TV comedies as “Friends” and “Seinfeld.” The show that really comes to mind, though, is “Frasier.” In fact, it’s quite fun to imagine that cast of actors performing this silly comedy of secret lovers and lies piling upon lies.
Onstage at Osceola Arts in Kissimmee, “Don’t Dress for Dinner” never reaches the heights of comic exasperation that the “Frasier” characters would often display but it’s an engaging and entertaining production.
The show takes place on a Friday in which Jacqueline is preparing to visit her mother for the weekend. Left to his own devices, her husband Bernard has secretly arranged for his lover, Suzanne, to come for a tryst. He’s also invited his best friend, Robert, to visit — so as not to arouse the neighbors’ suspicions about Suzanne’s appearance — and hired a cook, coincidentally and catastrophically named Suzette, to prepare dinner for them.
But, wait! When Jacqueline learns that Robert is coming, she quickly changes her plans so she can remain at home — because she’s secretly having her own extramarital affair with him. As everyone tries to keep their clandestine romantic entanglements from being discovered, the inventive lying begins.
I have to wonder if the age of COVID-19 dampened the fun a little for the cast. Under better circumstances, director Joy Belding might have done more with physical comedy. And the show never feels as sexy as it should.
But Belding and her cast have successfully carried off the most essential element of the play, and one of its trickiest aspects: Somehow these morally reprehensible characters must be likable. And this group is very likable; you very well might be rooting for everyone to keep their secrets and carry on. But what would be the fun in that?
The character at the eye of this storm is the hired cook — who is not cavorting with anyone she shouldn’t be. Nat Musgrove has a winning way with Suzette’s fondness for Cointreau and mercenary attitude in which she’ll do just about anything for a buck.
Or rather, a euro. French playwright Marc Camoletti, best known for the farce “Boeing-Boeing,” wrote “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” and it’s set in a suburb outside Paris. Osceola Arts has fun with this in little details: Bernard hums a French tune at the show’s start, and Robert’s pajamas are adorned with Tintin, a French-speaking cartoon character.
As Robert, Ricky Rodriguez-Rios has a good time making his eyes grow wider and his speech grow faster.
Aspen Thompson and Sarah Beth Ganey, as the wife and mistress respectively, are at their best when they team up among the ever-shifting alliances. As Bernard, Andrew Hakimipour delights in showing us a man with a plan … even as the plan is constantly changing.
If I had my druthers, I would raise everything up one farcical notch in this production: Bernard a tad more frantic, Suzanne a bit more vacuous, Jacqueline a little more vindictive. And the pacing could pick up some, too.
But the current speed means the audience has time to digest the convoluted speeches — Rodriguez-Rios nails a major one — that follow the shenanigans. And keeping everyone’s story straight is how the laughs land.
‘Don’t Dress for Dinner’
Length: 2:20, including intermission
Where: Osceola Arts, 2411 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway (U.S. 192) in Kissimmee
When: Through Feb. 6 Cost: $28 ($23 students and seniors)
Info: osceolaarts.org
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