{"id":388049,"date":"2026-04-20T01:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388049\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T01:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T01:52:07","slug":"fallen-angels-review-rose-byrne-is-utterly-delightful-in-noel-coward-comedy-revival-broadway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/388049\/","title":{"rendered":"Fallen Angels review \u2013 Rose Byrne is utterly delightful in No\u00ebl Coward comedy revival | Broadway"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fallen Angels has appeared only twice on Broadway<\/a> since its stateside premiere in 1927, two years after the lustful comedy\u2019s London premiere cemented No\u00ebl Coward<\/a> as England\u2019s drawing room enfant terrible. A sort of proto-Godot<\/a> where two society women drink themselves into a stupor waiting for an old lover to arrive while their husbands are away, it was nearly censored by the office of the Lord Chamberlain for its sexual frankness. (That kind of historical description usually indicates that perhaps someone showed some ankle). But 99 years later the play remains hilariously horny and startlingly modern, and Scott Ellis\u2019s champagne cocktail of a revival has the exact right ingredients: complete faith in the material, drop-dead deluxe design, and the sugar-and-bubbles combination of Oscar-nominated actor Rose Byrne<\/a> and stage veteran Kelli O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n

The two are stars of elastic, compulsively watchable talent, and the unexpectedness of their pairing only serves their dynamic in this expert staging of Coward\u2019s play, as their characters goad each other\u2019s worst impulses on until they come into conflict with their own. Their performances work \u2013 brilliantly \u2013 in the converse, with Byrne\u2019s knack for bawdiness and O\u2019Hara\u2019s born gentility swirling around to intoxicating effect.<\/p>\n

Before their hangovers come their \u201cpresentiments\u201d. Julia (O\u2019Hara) wakes up feeling strangely ill at ease on the day her husband (Aasif Mandvi) is set to leave for a weekend golf trip. Over breakfast, served by their comically overqualified new maid (Tracee Chimo), they sneer at the news of a friend\u2019s pending divorce \u2013 \u201cI think that uncommonly selfish of the fellow, unleashing her upon an unsuspecting world\u201d \u2013 unaware of the libidinous outburst that\u2019s to come. As soon as he leaves, Julia\u2019s longtime friend Jane (Byrne) arrives with concrete grounds for anxiety: a postcard from a handsome playboy the two ran around with, years before their husbands came into the picture, announcing a visit. Frazzled, Jane suggests fleeing the UK to America. It\u2019s that serious.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s not is the reason behind Jane and Julia\u2019s ordeal: they want some. The cleverness of Coward\u2019s play is how it heaps on all the reasons for which that urge could be distressing \u2013 all peppered with his unmatched bon mots and insider\u2019s eye for this world \u2013 while slyly eviscerating them. Delaying any action, secretly hoping to be caught casually unaware by the man, the women mask their true fear, the rawness of their desire, with booze and civility and the bourgeois concern that the fire has gone from their perfectly happy marriages. (Jane\u2019s husband, played by the finely hammy Christopher Fitzgerald, is off golfing with Julia\u2019s.) Their boredom with sedentary monogamy is in stark contrast with their worldly maid, who seems to have played around in every greener pasture and shows no sign of stopping.<\/p>\n

The opening breakfast scene is Coward\u2019s way of setting the table before breaking the dishes. Julia\u2019s husband longs for the simplicity of Victorian women, and no sooner does she disabuse the man of that idea than the play, too, shoos him away. It might have been tempting for Ellis to locate and lean into contemporary sensibilities, emphasizing the liberated progressive streak that is certainly there but can feel cynical (or, worse, corny) when exploited for relevance. He thankfully does not condescend to this: the century-old play holds up marvelously, and its two leads don\u2019t waste a drop of opportunity for drunken laughs.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Hara swishes Coward\u2019s highborn language like a favorite chablis; the actor is an ascendant grande dame of period pieces from television (The Gilded Age<\/a>) to opera (The Hours<\/a>) to musical theater (Days of Wine and Roses<\/a>). What\u2019s surprising is how broadly she can go at physical comedy, falling over furniture and going full Mommie Dearest<\/a> the morning after. As always, she\u2019s excellent.<\/p>\n

It is similarly never wise to bet against Byrne. In her second<\/a> Broadway outing, she takes a bit longer to settle into her character. But as she\u2019s displayed throughout her career, right up to her first Oscar nomination<\/a> this year in the psychodrama If I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You<\/a>, she is a constantly surprising actor. She truly shines once her Jane is nice and toasted, sneaking sips from Julia\u2019s glass and managing to proclaim \u201chow dare you!\u201d in a haughty, one-syllable hiss.<\/p>\n

David Rockwell\u2019s lavish, art deco set earns its curtain-raising applause, and Jeff Mahshie\u2019s costumes, topped off by David Brian Brown and Victoria Tinsman\u2019s wigs, are equally exquisite. One of the hairpieces is among the production\u2019s biggest laughs. When the former beau finally arrives (Mark Consuelos, perfect in what is essentially a cameo), he really is that irresistible, and Coward\u2019s roguish nudge that we follow our instincts makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fallen Angels has appeared only twice on Broadway since its stateside premiere in 1927, two years after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-388049","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}