I finally got to watch my first Repertory Philippines production this year! I missed their show last month, 4000 Miles, mostly because I had no idea that it was already running. I only got their partial season pass in the mail mid-March and the play was already halfway through with its run. I vowed that I would see their second show no matter what.
Coincidentally, the dude from work who got all of his arm hair waxed off for La Cage Aux Folles was also part of Run for your Wife, so a bunch of people from the office decided to watch the show on its opening night.
Directed by Miguel Faustman (Wait Until Dark), Run for your Wife is a screwball comedy about nondescript London taxi driver John Smith (Jamie Wilson – Rock of Ages) who runs a very tight schedule. Even though John Smith seems to be as ordinary as they come, he is actually bigamist – married and living with Mary (Goldie Soon – The Joy Luck Club in a flat in Wimbledon, while at the same time married to Barbara (Mikkie Bradshaw – Carrie The Musical) who he lives with in Streatham. John gets into an accident and messes up by telling one address to the hospital and another to the police and his carefully balanced life topples over.
When both Detective Sergeant Troughton (James Stacey – Grease) of the Wimbledon police and Detective Inspector Porterhouse (Paule Holme – Care Divas) from Streatham PD conduct separate investigations, John grows desperate and employs the help of his bum upstairs neighbor Stanley Gardner (Jeremy Domingo – The Woman in Black). The web of lies they spin grow more tangled as both John and Stanley try to keep John’s two lives from crossing over.
I was actually surprised that the play had me and my friends laughing our asses off all throughout the show. Because it was just the opening night, I was sort of expecting a few glitches in timing and in the delivery of the punch lines but Miguel Faustman seemed to have no problems steering his cast into the right direction. That must’ve been a feat because the blockings and the cues of the play were so specific that it would’ve been very noticeable if just one actor were off the mark.
Most of my LOLs were from Jeremy Domingo, whose Stanley Gardner was almost a show stealer. I particularly loved all of the scenes where Stanley, Mary and Det. Insp. Porterhouse were in because they bounced off each other extremely well, throwing lines at each other seamlessly.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed watching Run for your Wife. It’s actually the first time that I’ve laughed that hard during a non-musical. I definitely recommend watching this instead of the drivel that’s currently showing on our local cinemas. This was definitely two hours well spent.
Catch the show! They run until May 3, 2015. Get your tickets here or call 843.3570.
