- February 19, 2025
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Ken Ludwig’s “Lady Molly of Scotland Yard” is on the case in this world premiere at Asolo Repertory Theatre. The playwright borrowed the heroine and her sidekick from Baroness Orczy’s 1910 detective stories, created his own new plot and shifted the time and place.
The year is now 1940. There’s a war on! And the game’s afoot at Bletchley Park on the outskirts of London. This obscure estate is home to the “Ultra Secret” project.
Within its walls, Great Britain’s team of mathematicians, cryptographers and linguists are working to crack Nazi Germany’s “Enigma" machine — a device that sends coded instructions to deadly U-boats.
When someone starts killing Bletchley’s codebreakers, Scotland Yard realizes a Nazi spy has infiltrated the project. They task Lady Molly (Kate Loprest) with stopping the mole. Thanks to her mathematics education at Cambridge, Molly’s qualified to be a cryptanalyst. Her plucky assistant Peg (Adelin Phelps) is right by her side.
What follows is a rapid series of reversals, plot twists and inventive bits of business. It’s fun, funny stuff. Ludwig set his comedy in one of the 20th century’s most pivotal settings — with guest appearances by some of the era’s greatest heroes, including Alan Turing and Louis Armstrong.
The stakes? Nothing less than the survival of the free world.
Sounds like a movie, doesn’t it? Asolo Rep Producing Artistic Director Peter Rothstein’s direction is cinematic indeed. (His approach reminds me of Richard Lester’s work in the Beatles’ films.)
This fast-paced farce shifts locations in the blink of an eye. Greg Emetaz’ inventive projections create literal movies in the background and expand the world of the play. The actors deftly populate that world.
“Lady Molly” feels like a large-cast production. But only 11 actors play the 45 characters in the production. Except for the lead roles, they all have multiple parts.
Loprest’s Lady Molly is a dynamo of verve and vivacity. She’s a proto-feminist living in a man’s world. Her character outsmarts and outruns them all — and does an end run around any misogynist trying to hold her back.
Phelps is great as the plucky Peg. She’s loyal, but not a lackey. Lady Molly and Peg are the greatest detective team since Holmes and Watson. Loprest and Phelps deliver great comic chemistry.
The rest of the cast is cooking, too. Brian Zane sets the mood as the designated pianist in several nightclub scenes. Christian Thompson does a spot-on Louis Armstrong impression.
Jake Loewenthal’s Alan Turing reminds me of David Tennant’s Dr. Who. His character’s full of quiz-kid manic energy — and far from Benedict Cumberbatch’s depressive take in “The Imitation Game.” Chris Hoch plays Winston Churchill with gravitas. He resists the temptation to overdo the oratory.
Ludwig’s movie-of-the-mind comes to life with flair and technical wizardry.
Alexander Dodge’s set is adaptable, flexible and creative. It doubles as nightclubs, mansions, war offices or code rooms, as the scene requires. Emetaz’ crowd-pleasing projections include a perilous plane flight and a bad guy’s precipitous fall to his well-deserved bad end.
Alex Ritter’s sound design and Philip Rosenberg’s lighting add to the cinematic hyperreality. Jen Caprio’s costumes have a playful period accuracy. Lady Molly is a true clothes horse. Caprio's talents shine in Molly's kaleidoscopic, high-fashion costume changes.
While this play’s not a musical, it’s stuffed with music. Music director Jenny Kim-Godfrey has a great ear for the era’s mood.
Ken Ludwig’s “Lady Molly” has a lot going for it — including wit, sparkling dialogue, inventive physical comedy and period nostalgia. The one thing it lacks? Realism.
The playwright’s done his homework; don’t get me wrong. Ludwig anchored this play in historical fact. That said, his depiction of the “Ultra Secret” is about as realistic as the depiction of Eastern religion in Richard Lester’s “Help!” Which is to say … not realistic at all. And that’s OK.
“Lady Molly” is a very funny play. But it’s a farce, not satire or parody. Lady Molly isn’t a bumbling ninny like Peter Sellers’ Inspector Clouseau — she’s a damn good detective.
The play doesn’t poke fun of the thriller genre, either. It seems to mock its own artifice. This is an unreal, make-believe world. “Lady Molly” revels in that fact, and doesn’t try to hide it. This is a thriller in name only; we all know how the story ends. (Spoiler alert: The Allies won World War II.)
“Lady Molly” takes a light touch with heavy topics. But there’s no hint of camp. When characters express their patriotism or mourn someone’s death, it’s never played for laughs. The play laughs at its unreal world. It never laughs at the heroes of the real world.