Don't Dress For Dinner - Productions

Productions

The comedy ran in Paris for a little more than two years under the title Pyjamas Pour Six. The English speaking rights were then purchased by London producer Mark Furness who commissioned playwright Robin Hawdon to do a major rewrite of the play. The English version opened in the West End at the Apollo Theatre in March 1991, directed by Peter Farago and starring Simon Cadell as Robert, Su Pollard as the cook Suzette, Jane How as Jaqueline and John Quayle as Bernard. The reviewer for The Guardian wrote: "Hurtling along at the speed of light, Marc Canoletti's breathtaking farce is a near faultless piece of theatrical invention. Within seconds we are drawn into a delicious web of marital treachery which accelerates with classic symmetry to an all-star denouement... Originally staged in Paris where it ran for two years, the English version has been adapted by Robin Hawdon and retains a distinctly Gallic note, heightening a sense of dramatic artifice while pandering to the chauvinism that makes the French mistress intrinsically funnier than an English girlfriend." The play transferred to the Duchess Theatre and ran for a total of six years. This version has since played in theatres all over America and the English speaking world. The play was famously featured as the basis for a hidden camera prank on Lionel Blair on the television series Noel's House Party.

The play ran at the Papermill Playhouse, Millburn, New Jersey, in January 1993 to February 7, 1993. The reviewer for The New York Times wrote: " 'Don't Dress for Dinner' does not mirror human folly in the manner of true farce, but, rather, extols pretense and infidelity, validates multiple duplicity and provides a very wearying evening in the theater." Don't Dress for Dinner was produced at the Royal George Theatre, Chicago, Illinois in November 2008 to January 2009, with direction by John Tillinger and featuring Patricia Kalember and Spencer Kayden as the cook. The reviewer for the Chicago Tribune wrote: "To say it tickles that much-neglected, much-necessary, semimythical, recession-challenged appendage is not to do the show justice. It gives it a series of rib-rousing strokes."

The play opened on Broadway at the American Airlines Theatre in a limited run, with previews starting on March 30, 2012, and officially on April 26, 2012, and scheduled to close on June 17, 2012. This production of the Roundabout Theatre is directed by John Tillinger, and features Ben Daniels, Patricia Kalember, Adam James, Jennifer Tilly, David Aron Damane, and Spencer Kayden. The New York Times reviewer wrote: " 'Don’t Dress for Dinner' is arguably a better-constructed farce than 'Boeing-Boeing,' but this show, directed by John Tillinger, lacks crucial elements that made the earlier revival, directed by Matthew Warchus, so popular: the particular genius of Mr. Rylance, whose clowning was gently infused with real pathos, as well as stylish designs and the 'Mad Men'-era kitsch factor provided by the presence of sex-kitten stewardesses... Subtlety is not a requirement — or even an asset — when playing farce, and the cast of 'Don’t Dress for Dinner' certainly makes no attempt to underplay... The verbal wit in the English adaptation by Robin Hawdon is rather low... But most of the humor derives from the bawdy grappling among the various romantic partners and the slinky manner in which Suzette crisply outfoxes her betters." Theatre review aggregator Curtain Critic gave the Broadway production a score of 46 out of 100 based on the opinions of 16 critics.