Present Laughter
Closed 2h 30m
Present Laughter
80

Present Laughter NYC Reviews and Tickets

80%
(668 Ratings)
Positive
87%
Mixed
11%
Negative
2%
Members say
Great acting, Funny, Entertaining, Delightful, Clever

About the Show

Tony and Oscar-winning actor Kevin Kline returns to Broadway in Noël Coward's classic comedy about a famous and self-obsessed actor whose comfortable life quickly spins out of control.

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Show-Score Member Reviews (668)

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87 Reviews | 22 Followers
90
Delightful, Great acting, Great staging, Great writing, Hilarious

See it if you want to see a master at work on stage backed by an excellent cast in a great play.

Don't see it if you don't like farces

324 Reviews | 71 Followers
90
Clever, Delightful, Entertaining, Enchanting, Refreshing

See it if Kevin Kline and a perfect cast knock all of Noel Cowards single and double entendres as if they were set on a golf tee

Don't see it if Enjoyable romp is like eating a four course dessert which may not be weighty enough for those looking for dramatic heft

107 Reviews | 30 Followers
90
Delightful, Hilarious, Masterful

See it if You love the smart comedy of Noel Coward played by the best. Having seen this before I didn't expect to laugh as hard as I did.

Don't see it if You don't like drawing room comedies of any kind. You don't like Kevin Kline. How could you not like Kevin Kline! His casting is perfect.

94 Reviews | 93 Followers
90
Clever, Entertaining, Funny, Great acting, Hilarious

See it if You want to laugh from begining to end. Cast puts on stellar performances that keep you laughing the whole time.

Don't see it if Laughing is not your thing.

305 Reviews | 52 Followers
90
Masterful, Hilarious, Great staging, Great acting

See it if like classic comedy. It stands up to time. Brilliant physical comedy by amazing actor (Kline). Burton fabulous foil. Still hilarious.

Don't see it if you don't like shallow people misbehaving.

92 Reviews | 9 Followers
90
Clever, Funny, Great acting, Delightful, Entertaining

See it if You like Kevin Kline and a bunch of other great actors. You liked You Can't Take It With You. You like quick, funny, slapstick type shows.

Don't see it if You think plays are boring. You have to find meaning in a play, or you won't like it. You don't like to laugh in the theater.

96 Reviews | 29 Followers
89
Clever, Delightful, Entertaining

See it if You love Kevin Kline (and who doesn't) and if you appreciate clever repartee.

Don't see it if You need serious.

62 Reviews | 30 Followers
89
Delightful, Entertaining, Funny, Great acting, Great staging

See it if If you want to have fun, smile and laugh. Kline is wonderful as are his fellow performers.

Don't see it if You don't like revivals.

Critic Reviews (56)

Newsday
April 5th, 2017

“Directed with classy restraint by von Stuelpnagel, Kline holds back his virtuosic physical comedy until near the end, when his quick, startling feats made me want to rewind and watch them all over again…This is a revival that, despite a cast of farce experts, treats the broad moments as rare offhand treats that flash suddenly on characters as momentary glimpses into humanity’s silliness...This production has one absolutely critical element for Coward: style.”
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The Stage (UK)
April 5th, 2017

“The 1,700 seater St James Theatre is usually a musical house, and putting a play on here requires it be amplified to the extent that the voices sound strangely disembodied. The actors over-pitch their performances to try to reach the back row. The result is that laughter is only intermittently present. It feels lugubrious and weighty…Kline alone is big enough to fill it, though the women that populate his life are portrayed with varying degrees of sympathy, resignation and outrage.”
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Daily Beast
April 5th, 2017

“Kline plays an actor acting perfectly...The dialogue is Coward at his most crisp and arch…Something in the writing of ‘Present Laughter’ never raises the stakes to the level of gasping hilarity that true farce can elicit…In true farce, the audience knows all the points of stress before they are revealed and combust and so we should be rubbing our hands for the moments of revelation. However, we don’t....There’s no real driving plot, just a battery of Coward’s mots at their most bon."
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The Huffington Post
April 10th, 2017

“They don’t rethink or reimagine or modernize Coward...They simply do the play very well…With three acts and every opportunity for mugging, it might have grown tiresome. Instead, it’s a treat—thanks to most everyone in the ensemble…Kline cannot be a revelation, of course, not at this stage of his career. But what a treat to see him in such fine form...Kline is matched by Cobie Smulders, who is indeed a revelation in her Broadway debut.”
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This Week in New York
May 17th, 2017

"Kline is masterful as Essendine, his every gesture and utterance beautifully overplayed to the hilt...The women in the show are terrific...The men, however, do not fare as well...But director Moritz von Stuelpnagel is able to keep reeling it in whenever it threatens to go a little bit off track, with the help of Kline...There’s never a doubt that you will presently be laughing."
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WNBC
April 5th, 2017

“A talented cast in a rather plodding revival…It’s fantastic to see Kline perform…He is still the master of bumbling and pomposity, but this performance doesn’t radiate pep and vigor…Patel gives a strange performance...Director von Stuelpnagel might have asked him to dial it back a notch…Any opportunity to see this kind of cast doing a Coward play with such high production values is worth seeing. I’m just not 100 percent convinced this is the ‘Present’ anybody was expecting.”
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City Cabaret
June 1st, 2017

"Kline is hilarious with incisive timing and, at the same time, poignant and on target portraying Essendine's uneasiness as a fading public star in constant battle with his private reality...As the cherry on the top, Kline has an engrossing cast, all confidently kept in line by director Moritz von Stuelpnagel...Kline's skill, style, and sophistication does justice to Noel Coward's 1939 English comedy of warmth and desperation...'Present Laughter' is the pièce de résistance this theater season."
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TheaterScene.com
April 21st, 2017

“Kevin Kline further spices up Coward’s tangy wit with his own genius for physical comedy. It makes for an irresistible cocktail of a show…The plot is hardly going to win prizes for originality or even great credibility…Director Moritz von Stuelpnagel has guided the company into an infectious appreciation of Coward’s agility with language and whipsaw repartee, plus the facility, for the most part, to find the fun in the play’s people without making fun of them.”
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