Everything goes wrong in Skylight Music Theatre's comedy 'Noises Off' — except the laughter

In the world of "Noises Off," Murphy would be considered a crazy optimist.

Not only does everything that can go wrong actually go wrong in one shabby touring company's attempts to stage a sex comedy, it tends to go wrong in either the most embarrassing or most painful way.

The Skylight Music Theatre audience at Friday's opening performance frequently fell apart, too — with laughter at the pratfalls, dropped trousers, garbled lines and romantic hijinks of the characters onstage.

Dotty (Linda Mugleston), an older actress bankrolling the tour, has trouble remembering her stage business, particularly a pesky plate of sardines. She's carrying on with younger actor Garry (Max Christian Pink), who can't finish a thought offstage. Garry's onstage love interest, Brooke (Becky Cofta), is a bimbo involved with tyrannical director Lloyd (Matt Daniels), who's also fooling around with young assistant stage manager Poppy (Emma Knott). Codependent Belinda (Jenna K. Vik) looks out for fragile but fussy Freddy (Jake Horstmeier). Everyone tries to keep elderly thespian Selsdon (Joel Kopischke) away from the bottle. Stage manager Tim (Alexander Johnson) is the human duct tape stretched way too far.

They flounder through the first act of a comedy three times: in rehearsal, during a matinee and in the tour's final stop. We see the second attempt from backstage, the structural secret of Michael Frayn's comedy. Daniels' booming voice of God (he is not pleased), Pink's stair-hopping with his shoelaces tied, Mugleston's catty grumbles, Cofta's character's rigid fidelity to the script and Kopischke's stone-cold perfect entrances are some of the happy memories I'll take away from the mayhem.

Director Michael Unger has turned this music-free comedy into a Skylight-suitable production by adding music before the first scene and during the two intermissions. The Sardines, an ad hoc band led by music director Kurt Cowling on keyboards and featuring singer Leah Gawel, play music originally performed and mostly composed by '90s lounge revivalists Combustible Edison. Unger does his best to hook the music to "Noises Off" without disrupting the comedy.

Gawel is charming as she sings this goofy space-age vocalese. I wouldn't say the Combustible Edison music suits "Noises Off" in any deep way. But Unger's mashup does two things I like. It extends entertainment through the normally dead times of intermission in a low-key way: Some people listened attentively, some did not, and both responses are OK. Also, it reinforces the vibe of Skylight as a fun and playful place. That spirit has always been Skylight's secret sauce.

If you go

Skylight Music Theatre performs "Noises Off" through April 2 at the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway. For tickets, visit skylightmusictheatre.org or call (414) 291-7800.

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