Oscar Wilde wrote “The Importance of Being Earnest” as his final and finest drawing-room comedy, a “trivial comedy for serious people” designed to puncture Victorian worship of respectability, marriage, and social position.
It opened at London’s St. James’s Theatre on Valentine’s Day 1895, with George Alexander as Jack and Allan Aynesworth as Algernon. Its glittering first success became painfully brief when Wilde’s prosecution and imprisonment drove his name from the playbill and the production from the stage.
Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s production, directed by Rebekah Walendzak Slepski, understands the most important thing about “Earnest”: The play must float. The language lands lightly, even when the insults carry enough poison to kill a houseplant. The cast delivers Wilde’s compliments that are really attacks and attacks polished to resemble compliments with admirable assurance.
Algernon, played by Cole Flores, who could pass for Wilde’s mischievous younger cousin, is especially delightful.
Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” runs through July 25, 2026. (Photo courtesy of LBSC).
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Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” runs through July 25, 2026. (Photo courtesy of LBSC).
The production’s queer innuendo feels entirely at home in Wilde’s world of invented identities and carefully performed selves. The chief limitation is physical. Too often, actors stand in place and declare the text toward the audience. The lines remain hilarious, but the staging occasionally resembles a particularly well-dressed reading.
The 1980’s New Romantic concept works beautifully in Algernon’s London flat, where Patrick Nagel coolness, silk draping and sparkling crystals create a decadent little jewel box. Algernon’s clothes complete the picture.
Elsewhere, the idea begins losing its luggage. Gwendolen and Cecily remain fully Victorian, Jack eventually acquires a double-breasted 1980’s shoulder padded jacket, and Lady Bracknell appears caught somewhere between steampunk and “grandmacore.”
The concept is clever. Its application needs one more pass.
While we are on the subject of conceptual reimaginings, let’s talk about the one over at Musical Theatre West.
Ok, so, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice created “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” in 1968 as a short pop cantata that an entire school could perform. Its musical jokes deliberately borrowed contemporary sounds, including an Elvis-styled Pharaoh.
Its first audience was roughly 200 parents at Colet Court School. The piece expanded through recordings and professional productions, reaching the West End in 1973 and Broadway in 1982. Its original purpose explains its staying power: Children, adults, biblical storytelling and pop pastiche sharing one bright theatrical playground.
Musical Theatre West director Larry Raben is therefore entirely justified in updating those references to Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Adam Levine and other current pop figures. Modernizing “Joseph” is not vandalism. It is practically written into the show’s DNA.
Brian Justin Crum as Joseph in Musical Theatre West’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” on show through July 26, 2026. (Photo courtesy of MTW).
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Brian Justin Crum as Joseph in Musical Theatre West’s production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” on show through July 26, 2026. (Photo courtesy of MTW).
The production is sung fiercely. Brian Justin Crum as Joseph is a spectacular vocalist, a commanding presence, and, let us be honest, a very handsome man. Daebreon Poiema as the storyteller, and this world’s version of Beyoncé, drives the story with powerhouse assurance.
Now to the problem. The vibe all night was “Rocky Horror” performed with a children’s choir in tow. There is nothing inherently wrong with making “Joseph” queer, campy, sexy or gloriously over-the-top. The show has been prancing around in a loincloth for more than half a century. The problem is not queerness. It is awkward dramaturgy and a production that repeatedly places adult sexual imagery beside children without appearing to notice the tension it has created.
The trouble begins when the unruly children’s choir conjures a sultry, Destiny’s Child-like trio from the pit. The visual equation is clear: destiny, Joseph, dreams…clever. But when children appear to summon a trio presented through plunging necklines and sexual swagger, the joke curdles immediately.
Also, let’s be honest: Destiny’s Child is hardly a new musical reference.
From there, Egypt becomes a parade of black pleather booty shorts, patent-leather shoes, sock garters and bondage harnesses. Those choices might feel perfectly at home in the Fire Island Players version of “Joseph.” Here, with a children’s choir woven throughout the action, the production creates an uncomfortable visual conversation it never bothers to finish.
Eventually Joseph, cast out of Potiphar’s house after being discovered in a compromising position with Potiphar’s wife, stands in white boxer shorts among children holding tea lights while the score assures us that the children of Israel are never alone. What does the image mean? I remain available for explanations.
Even the famous coat is black, with colored lining rarely revealed. Joseph seldom spins, leaving us with “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream-LINING.”
Crum for his part, leaves it all on the stage, but this production keeps demanding we admire its concept without ever explaining why the concept belongs to the story.
If you go: “The Importance of Being Earnest”
Where: Helen Borgers Theatre, 4250 Atlantic Avenue.
When: Through July 25.
Cost: $30 general admission; $20 for students.
Info: lbshakespeare.org.
If you go: “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”
Where: Musical Theatre West, 4350 E. 7th Street.
When: Through July 26.
Cost: Tickets start at $25.
Info: musical.org.