Tracy-Ann Oberman has form when it comes to bold theatrical reboots, said Dominic Cavendish in The Telegraph. In 2023, the actress “memorably reclaimed” “The Merchant of Venice”, turning Shylock into an East End matriarch in the 1930s. Now, she takes on “Present Laughter”, Noël Coward’s arch self-portrait of a vain, ageing, star actor Garry Essendine (anagram: neediness).Directed by Lindsay Posner, the production turns Garry into Geri, and shifts the action from 1930s London to 1970s New York, though the characters remain mostly British. It is an evening of “mild mirth” rather than “wild guffaws”, but the transpositions work well, and Oberman, playing Geri, has the “glittery presence to hold the flimsy, at points farcical, affair together”.
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