The School For Scandal

Sophisticated New Yorkers are no strangers to the social practice of hanging out at each other's apartments while making witty, bitchy remarks about friends and strangers alike. It turns out that the exact same thing was happening over in England 250 years ago, as we discover in Red Bull Theater's revival of the 1777 Richard Brinsley Sheridan play "The School for Scandal," now playing at the Lortel Theatre.

"The School for Scandal" is about one extraordinarily eventful day in the lives of a bunch of high society folk, along with their servants, confidantes, and creditors. There is a kind of 'mean girls (and boys)' club led by wealthy widow Lady Sneerwell; they love to gossip and create mischief.

There is Sir Peter Teazle, a good if somewhat self-righteous man, and his much younger wife Lady Teazle, who is rapidly spending his money on fashionable clothes and trying to cozy up to the cruel crowd. Then there are the two Surface brothers, drunken wastrel Charles and upstanding Joseph.

The complicated plot machinations are many and varied. We learn right away that Joseph's goody-goody routine is an act, and he's actually after both Lady Teazle and Sir Peter's ward, Maria. Meanwhile, the Surface brothers' wealthy uncle, Sir Oliver, returns from the East and comes up with a complicated ruse (involving fake identities) to discover the true character of each brother.

Along the way, there are near-trysts, fake love letters, people overhearing scandalous news while hiding behind screens and inside trunks, and false reports of dueling injuries. By the end, some of the characters become better human beings, while it's clear that others will never change.

When the play begins, there may be a few minutes of nervousness as you wonder whether the centuries-old text might be a little hard to keep up with. Sneerwell and her cronies spend some time trading clever barbs, while also supplying exposition, and the combination could prove a little challenging to digest for those not regularly immersed in 18th century speech. But, rest assured, once the action gets into gear, the comical proceedings soon becomes quite easy and enjoyable to follow.

Playwright Sheridan is deliciously unsubtle in the way that he has named his characters, from Mr. Snake to Sir Benjamin Backbite. This production, under the excellent direction of Marc Vietor, has accordingly gone for an unsubtle, outright garish look with many of the costumes, particularly for the "School for Scandal" themselves, which is the nickname for Sneerwell and her nasty entourage. They have an outrageous punk-meets-fop look (costumes by Andrea Lauer, wig and hair design by Charles G. LaPointe), featuring period costumes in wild prints and colors.

The production has a wonderful cast, with Christian Conn as Joseph and Mark Linn-Baker as Sir Peter as standouts. Dana Ivey is a true highlight in the role of Mrs. Candour, one of Sneerwell's companions. She lacks her friend's cruelty, but hilariously defends her gossiping ways as though talking behind others' backs was an unstoppable human function. One only wishes the role were larger.

While some of Sheridan's piercing one-liners don't bring down the house today in quite the same way that they surely did years ago, the pleasure of watching otherwise intelligent people make fools of themselves never gets old, making "The School for Scandal" a timeless play well worth seeing in this fabulous production.

"The School for Scandal" runs through May 8 at the Lucille Lortel Theatre, 121 Christopher Street in New York City. For information or tickets, call 212-352-3101 or visit www.redbulltheater.com.