And the Award Goes To. . . Skylight's "Noises Off"

Photo by Mark Frohna.

From the Cabot stage in the Broadway Theatre Center, where Skylight Music Theatre’s current production of Michael Frayn’s Noises Off runs through April 2, let me invite you to London, where a very special ceremony is taking place . . .

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Royal Albert Hall for the 1982 Olivier Awards, celebrating this season’s best live theater performances on stages all over England. Returning to the ceremony already in progress, I think it’s safe to say that Otstar Productions Ltd.’s Nothing On has stunned the audience here, sweeping nearly every awards category. The wacky British sex farce by Robin Housemonger has been keeping audiences in stitches, touring extensively throughout the UK before taking up residence at the Barbican for an extended, sold-out run. 

So far this evening the only Olivier given to a performer outside the cast of Nothing On was the “Most Promising Newcomer of the Year” Award, bestowed on recent RADA graduate Kenneth Branagh. (Hopefully he can land a part in Nothing On when it inevitably transfers across the pond to Broadway!)

To recap the Olivier ceremony so far, here is a list of the award winners:

Photo by Mark Frohna.

The M.C. Escher Inside Out Award

Skylight Music Theatre

This award recognizes the layers of performance accomplished by presenting a concert by The Sardines, performing the music of Combustible Edison as interstitial entertainment inside a play, which is also inside a play. 

While some audience members fled the theater during the play-within-a-play’s two intermissions in order to recover from the chaos they witnessed onstage, others stayed to listen to the accomplished local ensemble, led by Kurt Cowling and fronted by the beautiful and talented vocalist Leah Gawel. Still other audience members struggled to speak with those seated around them in the face of the band’s impressive volume level, asking among other things, “What does ‘90s lounge music have to do with British farce?” “Why couldn’t the musicians have their own show?” and “Did they really run out of musicals?” 

The “Everything But the Kitchen Sink” Outstanding Props Award

Simone Tegge

Tegge showed extraordinary ingenuity in supplying the production with several flower bouquets, a potted cactus, a fireman’s ax, antique television and computer equipment, a twentieth century rotary phone with a 500 yard cord, several gallons of whiskey in shatter-proof bottles, and 144 dozen sardines – both plated and stand-alone varieties.

The Stanislavski Outstanding Direction of Actors by an Actor in a Play-within-a-Play Award

Lloyd Dallas (Matt Daniels)

Both an accomplished actor and director, Daniels was finally able to put his extensive experience in rehearsal halls to good use by channeling every tired, frustrated stage director he has ever worked with into the overtaxed impresario in charge of reminding cast members of Nothing On where to put their props (see above), when to enter and exit, and where to enter and exit. In a pinch, he also supplies them with character motivations so each line in the play makes perfect sense. 

Special kudos to Daniels/Dallas for pitching in backstage during the show, delivering inspirational speeches to the cast, and managing the fall-out from his failed romantic relationships with two young women in the company at the same time. That rascal!

In his acceptance speech, the normally erudite actor/director muttered simply, “Words. Doors. Bag. Boxes. Sardines.”

The Lady Godiva Award

Brooke Ashton/Vicki (Becky Cofta)

A standard and much beloved archetype in British sex farces, Vicki is a young, naive, blonde woman who spends the majority of the play in skimpy lingerie, contorting her body so that her scantily-clad posterior is either aimed squarely at the audience or upwards, towards the heavens. In Nothing On, the role is played beautifully by the talented (and very flexible) actress Becky Cofta. 

One wonders whether, four decades in the future, this hilarious character will still be an important element of the comedy, or whether (given changing gender norms) the male characters will also be allowed to perform the bulk of the play dressed only in the briefest of briefs. Sure the guys get to drop trou here and there exposing baggy boxer shorts, but when will they be able to really show their dramatic abilities by mounting the stage wearing only a mankini and a smile? Have you wondered this? MeToo.

The Buster Keaton Award for Physical Comedy

It’s a tie! Gary Lejeune/Roger Tremplemain (Max Christian Pink) 

Frederick Fellowes/Philip Brent (Jake Horstmeier)

Taking a running jump at a pratfall and convincing the audience that you might actually die onstage is a rare talent – rarer still  that it is possessed by two members of the Nothing On cast. Jake Horstmeier is astonishing in his clumsiness and physical mishaps – from fainting at the sight of his own nosebleeds to gluing himself to important tax documents. But he’s got nothing on Max Christian Pink, who not only appears to tumble down a flight of stairs to his certain death, he takes half the set with him, falling through floorboards and dismantling railings on his way. Pink’s antics backstage in the second act are also impressive, although generally frowned on by the theater community. Hurling props at fellow thespians, even when they have spurned your love, is as unprofessional as sleeping with your stage manager. 

The Acting British “Stiff Upper Lip” Award 

Mrs. Clackett/Dotty Otley (Linda Mugleston)

In live theater, things go wrong. Odds are all the things will not go wrong at the same time, but that is exactly what happened on the night I saw Nothing On. But in the face of misplaced props, missed entrances, malfunctioning tech, and malice-filled cast members, Otley/Mugleston persevered, because she is a pro and of course, the show must go on. Like a sea captain who has just steered her oil-filled tanker into an iceberg, Otley/Mugleston’s inspiring third act performance was the very picture of hopeless resignation, as she realized that she and all her retirement savings would go down with this ship. The actress’s deadpan delivery in the midst of disaster was truly inspiring and very funny.

(Note: Max Christian Pink was formerly nominated for this award, but was disqualified when it was discovered that he is actually British.)

And now let’s head back to the Oliver ceremony, where the awards for Least Controlled Chaos, Squeakiest Performance, and Most Sleep-Deprived Stagehand are about to be announced. . . Could Nothing On continue its winning streak here tonight? Stay tuned to find out!