Populist and elitist views clash in ‘La Bete’

Mark Rylance brilliantly plays a boor in a mock-1600s comedy

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

The original Broadway production of "La Bete" was an extremely stylish but fatally under-performed folly of a comedy that shut like a bad clam back in 1991. Believe me, I saw it (and smelled it).

David Hirson's play returned on Thursday, still very much a folly as a piece of stagecraft, but now acted to much finer effect by Mark Rylance and a smart company at the Music Box Theatre.

Whether superior acting can make this exotic bit of frippery popular with the tourists is anyone's guess. Only a few seasons ago, Rylance and director Matthew Warchus hilariously reclaimed "Boeing-Boeing" from Broadway oblivion so perhaps lightning will strike again for a completely different kind of play.

Composed mostly in rhyming couplets, "La Bete" rages within a palace in 1650s France. That's where playwright Elomire (David Hyde Pierce) heads a resident band of players patronized by a great princess (Joanna Lumley, formerly the lush cougar Patsy Stone of "Absolutely Fabulous" renown).

Unfortunately, on her recent travels the princess saw Valere (Rylance), a hambone writer-actor she now desires to join her private troupe. The fastidious Elomire is furious.

"I'm willing to oblige without dispute," fumes Elomire in rhyme. "However, on one point I'm resolute: A rash selection simply isn't wise, and that bombastic ninny I despise. Naught could induce me, save a Holy Writ, to share the stage with that dull hypocrite!"

Enter Valere, spraying food, a slovenly, egocentric buffoon with a big mouth that never shuts up for the next 20 minutes or so as he blabbers away about art and life and what a natural genius he happens to be. It's a bravura acting showcase for Rylance, who gleefully spits, farts, slobbers, belches and even takes a not-quite-offstage dump without ever losing breath or his total command of the audience.

Sporting terrible teeth, greasy locks and a bleating voice, Rylance is a rococo riot as he dementedly runs circles around the appalled Elomire and his venerable adjutant Bejart (portrayed by a slyly understated Stephen Ouimette).

As for the remainder of the 90-minute play itself, well, it certainly sports amusing moments as the princess commands Valere to improvise one of his ridiculous masterpieces with the troupe.

Ultimately, however, Hirson's highbrow-versus-lowbrow story scarcely adds up to a hill of haricots. Striving to comprehend those ceaselessly rhyming couplets tends to become eye-crossing. And in doing so, eventually dawns the realization that some of Hirson's elaborate text is merely glorified filler.

If Hirson's clever play is no long-lost jewel, Warchus' direction certainly polishes it very well. Elegant sets and costumes by Mark Thompson and touches of harpsichord music by Claire van Kampen are wisely restrained. Contrasting with Rylance's extravagance, Pierce depicts Elomire with outraged dignity. Making her overdue Broadway debut in a blizzard of gold dust, Lumley portrays the princess with regal ease and a glittering smile. The remaining six members of the company defer to the leading players.

"La Bete" continues at the Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.labetetheplay.com.