Mad About the Boys: 'Design for Living'

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WHAT A SWELL party it is to spend time with Noel Coward's witty, well-dressed 1920s bohemians in the Shakespeare Theatre Company's "Design for Living."

Sure, the 70-plus years since the Brit bon mot-slinger penned the comedy have diminished its power to shock but taken away none of the pleasure of watching its artistic freethinkers trade witty barbs and jump in and out of the sack with each other.

The setup is simple: Three twentysomething pals — Otto, Leo and Gilda — hang out, drink up and hook up in Jazz Age Paris, London and New York. Their creative pursuits — Gilda's an interior designer, Otto's a painter, and Leo's a playwright — provide some of the play's juice. The scandal comes from continual partner-swapping. What starts off as a Gilda-and-Otto romance morphs into every other imaginable pairing short of a threesome.

Director Michael Kahn makes the show's look as central as its lively jokes. This means Gilda (Gretchen Egolf) gets dolled up in the sort of printed day dresses and Charleston-all-night gowns Zelda Fitzgerald might have worn. James Noone's sets — representing the trio's increasingly posh circumstances — include a shabby chic Paris artist's loft and va-va-voomy New York penthouse loaded with Art Deco chrome.

Do the troubles of these three characters amount to much? Not really, but watching them live la vie boheme amounts to an evening almost as enjoyable as a night at a speakeasy.

» Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th St. NW; through June 28, $35.50-$84.75; 202-547-1122. (Gallery Place-
Chinatown/Archives-Navy Memorial/Federal Triangle)

Photo courtesy Scott Suchman