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Famous farce brings laughs across pond

The lighthearted British staple No Sex, Please, We're British opens at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre in Hudson next week.

By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
Published July 1, 2005

Almost every tourist who went to London before September 1987 put the farce No Sex, Please, We're British on their "must-see" list, right up there with Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.

The show was as much a London tradition as was New York's The Fantasticks and New Orleans' Nobody Likes a Smart---.

Besides, it provided good belly laughs at the expense of the presumed uptight British and gave visitors the chance to see actors who might go on to bigger and better things. The definitive Phantom, as in Phantom of the Opera , Michael Crawford, for example, launched his career in this little piece of fluff.

Alas, it closed, after a 16-year run that included 6,761 performances. Since then, it's become a favorite in community, regional and professional theaters, in Britain, the United States and elsewhere, even as nostalgic tourists search for it on return visits to the mother country.

On July 8, the Show Palace Dinner Theatre opens its version of No Sex, Please, We're British for a six-week run. Early sales have been brisk.

"I guess it's just something everybody wants to see," said Nick Sessa, co-owner of the Show Palace.

It does seem to be the perfect summertime amusement - easy-to-follow plot, zany, likable characters and action that goes so fast that no one stops to realize the play's inherent implausibility.

In it, newlyweds Peter and Frances Hunter (Show Palace newcomers Sam Little and Lucianne Hamilton) live in a flat above the branch bank where Peter is manager. Frances decides to earn a little money on the side selling glassware, but instead of her Scandinavian supplier sending her glassware, it sends her boxes full of illegal pornography.

There is no return address, so the couple try to hide the goods before Peter's boss, Mr. Bromhead (Jerry Gulledge, Quixote in Man of La Mancha ) or his oh-so-proper mum Eleanor (Marty Van Kleeck) see what is coming into their home.

The couple are aided by Peter's nervous colleague and pal Brian Runnicles (Michael Lundy), whose wacky antics are meant to distract any visitors.

As police superintendent Paul (Dudley Saunderson, voice of Florenz Ziegfeld in Will Rogers Follies ) pops in for some surprise snooping and bank inspector Needham (Chuck Cantrell) grows suspicious, the porn just keeps pouring in. Matters only worsen when the porn company tries to be helpful by sending their "sales representatives," Susan (Katie Kerwin) and Barbara (Andrea Eskin), to the Hunter home.

Despite the racy title and the double entendres, No Sex, Please, We're British is as proper as a Victorian maiden's parlor and is suitable for anyone who enjoys door-slamming, whiz-bang farce.

[Last modified July 1, 2005, 01:24:21]