First Folio stages a seafaring Wodehouse comedy
For its fourth dip into the P.G. Wodehouse canon, a nautical romp titled “Jeeves at Sea,” First Folio Theatre sticks with the tried-and-true. That translates to reuniting actors Christian Gray and Jim McCance with director Alison C. Vesely and writer Margaret Raether, the woman behind the Oak Brook theater's previous Wodehouse adaptations.
Culled from several tales, Raether's featherweight comedy of manners centers on Wodehouse's affably flighty aristocrat Bertie Wooster and his loyal valet Jeeves, whose primary responsibility involves keeping his employer well lubricated (vis a vis cocktails) and extricating him from whatever sticky situation he has managed to ensnare himself.
Like 2008's “Jeeves Intervenes,” 2010's “Jeeves in Bloom” and 2013's Broadway-centered “Jeeves Takes a Bow,” this latest incarnation involves misunderstandings, mistaken identities and misplaced affections. And while it doesn't elicit the belly laughs of earlier outings, the overstuffed “Jeeves at Sea” is a pleasant midwinter diversion that benefits from Gray and McCance's comedy skills, Vesely's sure hand and Raether's canny expression of Wodehouse wit.
The time is summer, 1929. The place is a yacht anchored off the coast of Monaco, where Bertie (the ever chipper Gray) and Jeeves (the ever imperturbable McCance) are vacationing with Bertie's pal Sir Percival Everard Crumpworth (Andrew Behling), affectionately known as Crumpet.
Bertie has accompanied Percy to the south of France to help him persuade his stingy uncle to turn over the rest of Percy's inheritance, Percy having blown through half of it in record time.
Bertie and company are the guests of the pert, independent-minded Lady Stella Vanderley (a perky, polished Kate McDermott). But unlike Bertie's previous romantic interests, this lady isn't anxious to join the notoriously matrimony-averse playboy at the altar.
In fact, Stella — who is also the object of Percy's affection — spends much of the play mulling over Bertie's marriage proposal, making her the first female in First Folio's series to resist what she describes as his “woolly-headed duckiness.”
As it turns out, Percy's problems extend beyond finances and romance. It seems he may have inadvertently assaulted a Prussian prince during a drunken altercation outside a casino. Moreover, Percy has learned his heretofore unknown twin brother, Alfred — kidnapped in infancy and raised in Africa — also has a claim on the family inheritance.
When the prince's emissary Count Otto von Dietrichstein (the ever comical Joe Foust) shows up, Percy impersonates Alfred in an effort to escape arrest and the count's wrath.
A superfluous subplot finds Bertie masquerading as a romance novelist to charm Stella's companion Miss Minerva Pilbeam (Whitney Morse). That leads Count Otto — Minerva's former paramour — to challenge Bertie to a duel. Asked to choose a weapon, Gray's Bertie proposes, in typical deadpan fashion: “sarcasm at 20 paces.”
There's requisite shtick involving chases, funny business with parasols and (precisely timed) door slamming, all of which is well-executed by Vesely's appealing cast. Composer/sound designer Christopher Kriz also earns kudos for his jazzy accompaniment.
That said, the pacing felt a bit sluggish initially. It picks up in the second act, which incorporates the zaniness a Bertie and Jeeves comedy demands. And while “Jeeves at Sea” lacks the laughs that made “Jeeves in Bloom” so memorable, McCance and Gray operate (as ever) as a well-oiled machine, which makes this a voyage worth taking.
“Jeeves at Sea”
★ ★ ★
<b>Location: </b>First Folio Theatre, Mayslake Peabody Estate, 1717 W. 31st St., Oak Brook, (630) 986-8067 or <a href="http://firstfolio.org">firstfolio.org</a>
<b>Showtimes:</b> 8 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 28
<b>Running time:</b> About two hours, with intermission
<b>Tickets: </b>$29-$39
<b>Parking:</b> Free lot adjacent to the estate
<b>Rating: </b>For most audiences