Not only is Mr. Kline’s performance a triumph, but this revival, directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel, is the best staging of a Coward play—any Coward play—that I’ve ever seen. How have Messrs. Kline and Von Stuelpnagel dealt with this problem? Von Stuelpnagel makes him claim at various points in the play to be 45, 43, 47 and (best of all) 57. The last “Present Laughter” I saw, directed by David Lee for New Jersey’s Two River Theater Company in 2013 and starring Michael Cumpsty, was fabulously fine, enough so that it should have transferred to Broadway. I never expected to see “Present Laughter” done better, but Mr. Kline and his colleagues have turned the trick.

Source: Wall Street Journal April 06, 2017 00:22 UTC