The rhymes come fast and furious, and so do the laughs, in Theatre 40’s 2022-2023 season-opener The Metromaniacs, David Ives’ très délicieux updating of Alexis Piron’s early-18th-century French farce of a similar name.

Spring has sprung in 1738 Paris when Monsieur Francalou (David Hunt Stafford) announces to his maid Lisette (Mandy Fason) his intention of putting on a play, in hopes of finding his nubile daughter Lucille (Josephine Núñez) a prospective husband amongst the male attendees, one of whom will be Francalou’s houseguest Cosmo de Cosmos (Alex Anderson Carraso).

Not that the handsome young gent is actually named Cosmo.

He is in fact poet/playwright Damis, who’s shown up chez Monsieur Francalou in hopes of meeting poetess Meriadec de Peaudoncqville, whose intoxicating rhymes have sent him falling head over heels in love.

What Damis/Cosmos does not realize is that Madame Peaudoncqville (pronounced Podunk-Ville) is actually Monsieur Francalou.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in la maison, the equally young and handsome Dorante (Jeremy Schaye) has already declared his love for Lucille, no matter that she only has eyes for Damis, no matter that she’s never actually met the man but only read his poems.

Since the way to Lucille’s heart is clearly through her love of verse, Dorante determines to win her over with words, a task more easily said than done given his complete lack of poetic talent.

And this is just the start of a centuries-old comedy re-written in 2015 by master wordsmith Ives, who preserves the French original’s rhyming-couplet style even as he takes refreshing liberties when converting 18th-Century French to 21st Century English.

Word-play gems like “But hey, before we wave and say ‘Ciao, bella,’ consider this: Am I a lucky fella?” will give you some idea of just how silly and clever Ives’ contemporary-flavored take on Piron’s nearly three-century-old French soufflé can be.

Michèle Young’s elegantly brocaded gowns and waistcoats may remind us that we’re in Paris circa 1738, but like Ives’ couplets (“A rhyme or two I might not call un-juicy. What a choice welcome home gift for my Lucy!”), director Marjorie Hayes gives The Metromaniacs’ Los Angeles Premiere a very “now” sensibility, and she scores bonus points for more long-distance slaps than I could possibly count.

Performances are almost unanimously fabulous.

Carrasco’s pompadoured Damis bursts with so much full-of-himself panache and Schaye’s statuesque Dorante is such a preening delight that one can only hope their T40 debut appearances will be the first of many.

The same can be said for T40 newbie Fason’s saucy Lisette and fellow first-timer Núñez’s influencer-in-training Lucille, both equally delish, and never more so than when Lisette impersonates the bubbly (if not entirely bubble-headed) Lucille.

John Wallace Combs channels comedic legend Ed Wynn so endearingly that it scarcely matters that the role of manservant Mondor, usually cast as a contemporary of Damis and Dorante, is now of an age with Hunt’s stammering Francalou.

Still, if there’s one scene-stealer par excellence in Theatre 40’s The Metromaniacs, it’s The Group Rep favorite Hisato Maruyama’s featured turn as Damis’s wacky uncle Baliveau, aka Signor Pirandello, spouting an indescribable, indecipherable array of sounds that had me in stitches.

Scenic designer Jeff G. Rack has adorned the Francalou home with a colorful forest of painted trees precisely per the evening’s host’s instructions, and Derrick McDaniel has lit Rack’s rustic set, Young’s luscious costumes, and Judi Lewin’s just-right hair, wig, and makeup with abundant élan.

Last but not least, Nick Foran’s sound design not only provides appropriate, often amusing effects throughout the show but sets the old-meets-new tone with such Top 40 gems as “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and “I’m To Sexy.”

Last but not least, Michele Bernath has choreographed a jaunty pre-curtain call minuet to leave the audience with even wider smiles on their faces.

The Metromaniacs is produced by Stafford. Nathan Danielson is assistant director. Ryan Rowles is stage manager and Isabella Fried Leeman is assistant stage manager.

Like a bottle of the bubbliest champagne, David Ives’ effervescent The Metromaniacs opens Theatre 40’s 2022-2023 season with cork-popping pizzazz.

Theatre 40, 241 S. Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills.
www.Theatre40.org

–Steven Stanley
July 30, 2022
Photos: Michèle Young

Tags: Alexis Piron, David Ives, Los Angeles Theater Review, Theatre 40