FALLEN ANGELS (PASADENA PLAYHOUSE): 100% – SWEET

Pamela J. Gray and Katie MacNichol in Noel Coward’s “Fallen Angels” at the Pasadena Playhouse. Credit: Jim Cox.

SWEET
Shrug off that fur, have a cocktail and dish the dirt with “Fallen Angels,” Art Manke’s irresistible production of a rarely seen Noel Coward comedy, now at the Pasadena Playhouse.
Charlotte Stoudt – LA Times

SWEET
The direction by Art Manke keeps the comic motor chugging smoothly, and he gives the women all the rope they need to stop just short of hanging themselves.
Rob Meurer – Grace Notes

SWEET
Fallen Angels is a terrifically fun evening of theatre. I hope other productions of it will eventually follow, but none I can assure you will be better than this. Bravo!
Don Grigware – Grigware Reviews

SWEET
Director Art Manke, a veteran of six Coward shows, keeps his talented cast of six smoothly paced through the traditionally wordy Coward prose, hysterical physical pratfalls and paper-thin cover-ups.
Gil Kaan – Culture Spot LA

SWEET
“Fallen Angels” is best known for its maid character, Saunders (the droll Mary-Pat Green), who sings, smokes, plays the piano, speaks French and knows all about golf balls and hangover remedies. A thousand sit-com writers owe Coward a real debt here.
Robert Hofler – Variety

SWEET
The Pasadena Playhouse has had a long history with Coward, dating back almost precisely to the year this play was written. While there is nothing innovative in this choice of repertoire (Design for Living might have had more punch), nor in the unambitious production, it is welcome to experience this relatively early text, quite aged yet not doddering, still toned and ready to frolic.
Myron Meisel – The Hollywood Reporter

SWEET
“Fallen Angels,” Noël Coward’s 1925 farce about two wealthy British women tempted by the return of a Frenchman who once bedded both of them, sparkles at the Pasadena Playhouse under the expert direction of Art Manke.
Iris Mann – Backstage

SWEET
The Pasadena Playhouse has come up with a surefire recipe for crowd-pleasing comedy. Start with a script by a master playwright, hire a cast of crackerjack comedic whizzes, surround them with a production that looks as smashing as Broadway’s best, and above all, entrust the entire project to director Art Manke, who has taken an early Noël Coward gem and turned it into a hilarious hit that would do Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance proud.
Steven Stanley – StageSceneLA

SWEET
This production soars on superb performances, as the girls are a kick from start to finish; Mary- Pat Green does a terrific turn as Saunders, the maid. Art Manke’s direction is flawless, and Tom Buderwitz has designed a strikingly fastidious drawing room as a backdrop.
Lovell Estell III – LA Weekly

SWEET
At its least it is a charming send-up of stuffy society marriages. At its best it contains some of the funniest moments of physical comedy I’ve seen onstage in some time.
Frances Baum Nicholson – The Stage Struck Review

SWEET
As this show runs through the month devoted to romantic love, you might want to take that into consideration before you peg this as a date night show. If you love watching the well-mannered getting unmannerly though, then this production is for you.
Jana Monji – LA Examiner

SWEET
And while it’s true that, in 2013, nothing in Noel Coward’s play is likely to turn the most-repressed-audience-member’s hair white, Manke and his cast create such a racy aura that we almost forget that sneaking around on your husband is sadly commonplace these days.
Jonas Schwartz – TheaterMania

SWEET
I only have one complaint with Fallen Angels. It ends. I so thoroughly enjoyed this show and these performances. This is pure entertainment. Don’t miss it, sweeties.
Macho Show Queen – Los Angeles Magazine

SWEET
Art Menke directs this flawless cast, and the wonderful 20′s costumes are designed by David K. Mickelsen.
Carol Kaufman Segal – Stagehappenings

SWEET
“Fallen Angels,” written by Noel Coward in 1925, is something of a theatrical Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon — entertaining, feel-good, funny, and, of course, lighter than air. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that). But it depends on the skills of the cast and the director to keep a play like this aloft and, fortunately, the six actors and director Art Manke provide plenty of helium to do just that.
George Alexander – Culture Vulture

SWEET
Sheldon Epps has hit his stride with the presentation of Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels with a shortened engagement of just over 20 days. At a near-capacity crowd the night I saw the show the laughs came easily and often.
Leigh Kennicott – Stagehappenings

FALLEN ANGELS
Pasadena Playhouse
39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena
8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays
Ends Feb. 24, 2013
Tickets: $32-$62; (626) 356-7529
Running time: 2 hours