Twits

Cyril Chippington-Smythe (Michael Urie), eligible bachelor and the world’s richest man is living a life of ease, attended by his resourceful steam-powered valet Bentley (Dakin Matthews). When the toothy Alice Witherspoon (Helen Cespedes) invades his breakfast room determined to marry him whether he will or no, Bentley concocts a scheme to transfer her affections to Cyril’s freeloading cousin- the hapless Binky (Christian Borle), Alas, Alice has ulterior motives that may lead to the destruction of civilization. Whose plot will emerge victorious? There are shoals and pitfalls aplenty, like Cyril’s imperious Aunt Hypatia (Mary Testa) who demands that he marry and produce an heir. The shy but brilliant Pansy (Kiera Allen) is roped into the plot and impersonates Binky’s fictitious fiancee, Gardenia. Ahmed Ben Fitzwilliam (James Monroe Iglehart), the imperious Club Hatter, rules over the dictates of fashion at Cyril’s club, “Twits” and, weaving through it all, is the improbable C. Langford Cheeseworth (Stephen DeRosa), a shiny-headed habitue of “Twits” whose eccentricities of accent come and go according to his whim.

This is a world in which the great minds that should have discovered electricity went into the restaurant business instead, or decided to chuck the science game because their true passion was stand-up comedy. It is a world of hydrogen, steam-powered servants and factory-made food- in which the privileged few, like Cyril Chippington-Smythe, whose every wish is instantly gratified, have nothing to live for but pleasure… and fashion… and love.

Sound inviting? Well, you’re invited. Come drift away on a comic cloud. The dining room is serving Impossible Mutton today and there’s a Brandy and Prozac with your name on it.

Don’t be late. Hats required.