Perfect Nonsense: First Night Review

I've just returned from watching the opening night of Perfect Nonsense in Richmond and have to say the play is brilliant. It all begins with Stephan Mangan (Bertie Wooster) doing a bad job of narrating the play to the audience until Jeeves (Matthew Macfadyen) steps in to save the play... so to speak. 

The laughs begin immediately.  I was expecting Mangan to be the funny buffoon while Macfadyen was to be the straight man.  Instead, you almost felt the funny man was more the straight man while the straight man played more of the comic.  Don't get me wrong, both were hilarious, but Matthew had some of the funniest delivered lines in the most outrageous costumes.  In the beginning, I thought Mark Hadfield (billed as Seppings the butler) might end up stealing the show.  His Aunt Dahlia had the audience clapping in laughter, quickly followed by the dictator-like Roderick Spode.  But Matthew Macfadyen had even bigger laughs and claps when he showed up as both Sir Watkyn Bassett and Stiffy Byng at the same time!

The play remains energetic through out with quick costume changes and even quicker set changes.  A word of warning, if you are sitting in the rows nearest the stage, ask to move if you can.  Your view will be severely obstructed.  (at least in Richmond).  Hopefully this will be fixed in Brighton and the West End.

The finale where the three actors dance with the audience clapping along was the perfect ending to a perfect nonsense.