Not enough of a Coward

In 1967, Noel Coward showed his script for “Star Quality” to a producer friend, who was “highly amused by it personally but thought it too esoteric for the great public,” Coward wrote. “He was rather flummoxed when I entirely agreed with him.”

When Coward died in 1973, the script remained unproduced. Now, “Star Quality” is finally emerging on an American stage, at Pasadena Playhouse, in an adaptation by Christopher Luscombe that was presented in 2001 in London. It draws on a 1951 Coward short story with the same title, as well as the mid-’60s script.

Yet Coward’s original assessment still holds true more than it should. “Star Quality” has some amusing moments, but it doesn’t rise above an in-joke. It especially suffers in comparison to Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky,” a similar backstage comedy from the same mid-century era in which Coward’s play is set. Pasadena Playhouse revived Hart’s comedy in 1999 with great success.

Both scripts present the tribulations behind the scenes as a new play is preparing for its big opening. Both feature an imperious female star and a naive young playwright. But while “Light Up the Sky” crackles with comedy, “Star Quality” merely simmers. Nothing very surprising happens. Everyone initially oozes charm, the better to underline the irony of their later squabbles.

The middle-aged diva (Carolyn Seymour) and the somewhat younger and iron-willed director (Robertson Dean) are the key combatants. The diva has insisted on the casting of one of her over-the-top friends (Jenna Cole) in a supporting role. A showdown occurs when the diva gets wind of the director’s decision to fire her pal, whom she appreciates in part because the sidekick makes the leading lady look even better.

The play’s most original character is the “personal assistant” (Danny Scheie) to the director. He’s also the director’s boyfriend, but he’s no mindless boy toy. He’s the behind-the-scenes guide for the green playwright (Hayden Adams), correctly interpreting the power plays. He comes up with a brainstorm for the playwright’s script, although it later becomes apparent that his idea is hardly original and is calculated primarily to please the leading lady.

The candor of the references to the homosexuality of the director and his assistant would not have been permitted on the West End stage until the late ‘60s, explains a program note. That this subtext becomes more explicit in Luscombe’s adaptation will interest Coward devotees. But for general audiences in 2003, any sense of shock is long gone.

One of L.A.’s Coward specialists, Art Manke, staged “Star Quality.” In 2001, Manke brilliantly directed Coward’s “Hay Fever” at A Noise Within, the company where he was one of the founding artistic directors, and he appeared in A Noise Within’s illuminating 1997 rendition of Coward’s “Design for Living.” But he hasn’t been able to bring “Star Quality” to that level, even though he imported some of his A Noise Within talent.

Seymour’s role is problematic. Although the script briefly suggests that the concept of “star quality” is a trashy delusion, the last scene returns wholeheartedly to the idea that star worship is valid. Yet “Star Quality” gives the purported star of the play-within-the-play few opportunities to demonstrate her elusive magic. So it’s not clear if we’re supposed to sense something truly transcendent coming out of Seymour -- which we don’t -- or if we’re supposed to see her as a mere mortal -- which we do.

On opening night, her most self-consciously serious speech was punctuated with inappropriately premature laughter from a few members of the audience.

Dean and Scheie are pointedly on target as the cynical director and his “assistant.” Cole flounces effectively as the carrot-topped over-actor whose job is on the line, and Adams is properly befuddled as the novice writer. But the other roles don’t engender many laughs. One role is so minor that the actress doesn’t speak and serves only to block sight lines in the scene in which the cast first reads the script.

That script-within-the-script adds little comedy of its own, unlike the references to the pretentious allegory in “Light Up the Sky” or the mayhem-inducing farce within “Noises Off.” “Star Quality” lacks star quality.

*

‘Star Quality’

Where: Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena

When: Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m.

Ends: April 13

Price: $39.50-$44.50

Contact: (626) 356-PLAY

Running Time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

Carolyn Seymour...Lorraine Barrie

Robertson Dean...Ray Malcolm

Hayden Adams...Bryan Snow

Danny Scheie...Tony Orford

Jenna Cole...Marion Blake

Mark Bramhall...Gerald Wentworth

Jane A. Johnston...Nora Mitchell

Brian McGovern...Eric Larch

By Noel Coward, adapted by Christopher Luscombe. Directed by Art Manke. Set by Michael C. Smith. Costumes by Mary Vogt. Lighting by Chris Rynne. Sound by Pierre Dupree. Production stage manager Sara K. McFadden.