WEDNESDAY evening saw the opening night of Yes, Prime Minister, at the Gil Cates Theater at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood.
An artsy crowd schmoozed in the courtyard before the curtain, lubricated by wine and Pimms – a very pleasant surprise for this reviewer – director Jonathan Lynn was out among the guests rather than backstage, and we also spotted British Consul General Dame Barbara Hay and actress Angelica Huston among the audience.
Lynn, who got his start Fiddler on the Roof in the West End back in 1963 and has enjoyed a long and sucessful career as an actor, writer and director, directs his and Antony Jay’s award-winning comedy of political power and intrigue that has played three sold-out London West End seasons. Performances continue through July 14 in Westwood.
All the action takes place in a single room in Chequers, the Prime Minister’s country retreat, as PM Jim Hacker (Michael McKean) struggles to come to terms with a growing series of crises while jousting with his wily, veteran civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby (Dakin Matthews) and Sir Humphrey’s idealistic young sidekick, Bernard Woolley (Jefferson Mays).
Hacker is hoping to secure a huge loan – along with an oil pipeline – from the invented central Asian state of Kumranistan, which will help alleviate the fallout from the 2008/09 financial crisis which is still depressing the British economy. The onlyproblem is one of the Kumranistani delegation is feeling frisky and demands a trio of hookers be brought to Chequers as the price of his signature on the agreement. Predictably chaos, conflict – and heavy drinking – ensue.
Fans of the long-running British television series will not find anything new here – either in the dramatic tension between Hacker and Sir Humphrey, or in the issues being raised – but its good to see characters such as Hacker and Sir Humphrey can live beyond the wonderful actors – Nigel Hawthorne and Paul Eddington – with whom they originated. The Anglo-centric humor got plenty of laughs from the opening night audience, although clearly they are self-selecting group of Anglophiles to begin with – but there’s enough here to win some new fans too. Dakin Matthews was particularly impressive, both for meeting the physical demands of the role and for his delivery of long, complicated, polysyllabic justifications – Whitehall-speak, in other words – with just the same panache we came to expect from the late Hawthorne.
“Although the play is about the British government, I’m hopeful that US audiences will appreciate it just as much as they did in London,” said director Lynn in an earlier statement. “British and American democracies are based on the same fundamental principle: if no one knows what you are doing, no one knows what you’re doing wrong.”
Rounding out the cast are Stephen Caffrey as BBC Presenter; Brian George as The Kumranistani Ambassador; Tara Summers (the only REAL Brit in the cast) as Claire Sutton, Special Policy Advisor; and Time Winters as The Director General of the BBC.
The production also features set design by Simon Higlett, costume design by Kate Bergh, lighting design by Daniel Ionazzi and sound design by J. Cox and John Leonard.
Tickets are available in person at the Geffen Playhouse box office, via phone at (310) 208-5454 or online at geffenplayhouse.com.
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