First off Patrick Marber’s riveting “After Miss Julie” starred three thoroughly convincing actors -- Sienna Miller, Jonny Lee Miller, and Marin Ireland.

Next on the blocks, the perennially cosmopolitan Noel Coward’s blithely cheerful comedy “Present Laughter.”

An aging matinee actor idol that insists on being center stage first, last, and always, is surrounded by a devoted staff, adoring friends, relatives and lovers who surge around him like the pull of a new moon on the tides.

Impeccably dressed and poised, Garber tries to organize his departure for a tour of Africa. Needless to say, complications of the heart trip up the plans. As the protective, world-wise and weary secretary, Harriet Harris, adds just the right amount of bitters to the play’s fizzle. Separated from her husband, but still best pals, Lisa Barnes adds her own burst of civility to this staircase farce.

When he first emerges on the elegantly curved staircase, Garber’s confronted by a pretty item that spent the night downstairs because she left her keys at home. (Evidently, that’s the accepted excuse for over-nighting-it with Garber). Always teetering on the “just about over the top” mode, Garber finesses his way out of her arms and into the next daily drama. Whenever a doorbell buzzes, the phone rings or door slams, another character plunges into the matrix of inter-personal complications.

Garber does try to do the right thing by all. A wandering wife takes up with a best friend, and Garber steps in. But fortunately, this is an adult comedy and it insistently floats on the tangy side of melodrama.

There’s even a hyper-balletic playwright nut-case, Brooks Ashmanshas enthralled with his hero, Garber. Ashmanshas looks like an escapee, Attention Deficit Disorder, elephant from Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.” Director Nicholas Martin juggles the actors to a jazzy cosmopolitan rhythm.
C.Ipiotis