Broadway's 'Fallen Angels' Revives with Byrne & O'Hara
SkimNews Take
Exceptional individual performances can mask the underlying weaknesses of a production, creating a critical dissonance where the actors are praised while the show itself struggles to impress.
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- Fallen Angels returns to Broadway for the first time in 70 years, marking a rare revival of the 1925 Noël Coward play.
- Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara headline the cast as Jane and Julia, delivering a high‑energy physical comedy routine that lifts the second‑act scene.
- Scott Ellis, interim director of Roundabout Theater Company, stages the production with screwball flair, encouraging the leads to “go‑for‑broke” on punchlines.
- David Rockwell designs an Art Deco dining‑room set with a chandelier that doubles as a sight gag, adding visual humor to the performance.
- Mark Consuelos plays Maurice, while supporting actors Christopher Fitzgerald are noted as barely registering as the husbands, and Tracee Chimo stands out as a bubbly maid.
- The play, originally censored and later revised in 1958, is considered one of Coward’s lesser works, lacking the depth of his later masterpieces despite its sparkling dialogue.
Why it matters: The revival brings a long‑neglected Coward farce to Broadway, giving theatergoers a fresh, high‑energy experience anchored by Byrne and O’Hara’s slapstick, while the play’s dated script and weaker supporting cast limit its broader artistic impact, highlighting the challenge of re‑staging early works for modern audiences.
