David Ives’ Metromaniacs: French Farce American Flair

Metromaniacs

David Ives’ The Metromaniacs, adapted from Alexis Piron’s La Métromanie and directed by Michael Kahn, has just opened Off Broadway, bringing New Yorkers the latest in Ives’ series of French farces with an American accent.

The Metromaniacs opened Off-Broadway on April 10 at The Duke on 42nd Street (229 West 42nd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues) with its formal opening night set for April 22 and a run through May 26. Running time will be one hour and forty-five minutes, including one intermission.

This is the third collaboration between director Michael Kahn and Ives and the third play in Ives series of rediscovered French comedy masterpieces, following The Heir Apparent (2011) and The Liar (2010).

Noah Averbach-Katz, Christian Conn, Adam Green, Peter Kybart, Adam LeFevre, Amelia Pedlow and Dina Thomas are the cast.

The Metromaniacs has set design by James Noone, costume design by Murell Horton, lighting design by Betsy Adams, sound design by Matt Stine and original music composed by Adam Wernick.

The play draws its name from Metromania, a poetry craze that’s popular in Paris in 1739 when Damis, a young, would-be poet falls in love with Meriadec de Peaudoncqville, who turns out to be a wealthy gentleman.

A mixture of scheming servants, verbal acrobatics and mistaken identities follows in this version of a French farce by Ives.

“Once I started working in verse,” Ives says, “I would walk down the streets and translate bus ads into verse, just to see how they’d sound. Know what? Bus ads are always better in iambic pentameter.”

Born in Chicago in 1950, Ives entered Yale School of Drama in 1981. All in the Timing (1993) ran for more than 600 performances Off-Broadway.  His Venus in Fur ran from 2013 to 2014, was nominated for a Tony Award and turned into a film by Roman Polanski.

Ives is currently collaborating with Stephen Sondheim on a much-anticipated musical based on two films of Luis Buñuel.

His The Liar and The Heir Apparent, rhymed-verse translations of French comedy commissioned by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, precede the latest production. “I think everything should be in verse,” Ives has said. “Verse raises the level.”

To buy tickets, visit Dukeon42.org or call 646-223-3010. Regular box office hours at The Duke on 42nd Street are Tuesday through Friday, 4 P.M.-7 P.M. and Saturday noon-6 P.M.