We Review: The Miser @ Seattle Shakespeare Co.

We laughed ourselves silly during the buoyant slapstick farce that is The Miser (through April 6, tickets $20-$34), which was not really our plan. We'd meant to be stern with the Seattle Shakespeare Company--Moliere isn't Shakespeare. It's an obvious bait and switch.

But a number of things came together: the contemporary, sharp-as-a-tack translation by David Chambers, Todd Jefferson Moore in the role he was born to mug, and the Mel-Brooksian direction of Robert Currier. (Oddly, the Rep is also doing Moliere right now and we laughed all the way through that, too, which can only mean that the coming U.S. economic collapse has got us in a giddy mood.)

Now, there are some people who turn up their noses at a translation that doesn't rhyme and so heighten the brilliance of Moliere, but we will take a funny, in-the-spirit translation over a clunky couplet any day. Chambers' is irreverent, tart, and on the money.

And, speaking of being in the spirit of things, as Harpagon Todd Jefferson Moore owns the role so thoroughly that we were ready to watch the deleted scenes, you know, where he does the dishes, mows the lawn, takes a mid-afternoon nap. The lanky, gangling Moore spends much of his time in a rodental crouch, almost visibly sweating in that oily R. Crumb way over the safety of his strongbox and savings. There's not a line that he doesn't deliver as if he weren't, in his heart, a cantankerous, smelly, scheming old geezer who plans to outlive 'em all, and he even carries off the topical sub-prime mortgage reference.

The story revolves around his plan to marry off his son and daughter as an investment strategy, along with picking up a frugally minded housemaid/wife of his own. When an unscrupulous matchmaker with a heart of gold, Frosine (Leslie Law, ready to go right over the top and climb up a ladder from there), inserts herself in the middle of his plans, Harpagon's single-minded pursuit of stinginess meets its match.

Director Currier lets things fly along at a helter-skelter pace; if that bit doesn't work, just wait a second, something else will. And he finds ways of bringing supporting actors into the spotlight without throttling the play's momentum. Daughter Elise (Jennifer Sue Johnson) has a great little WWF cage match with her father Harpagon over her love for her savior (and servant) Valere (Daniel Brockley); Son Cleante (Brian Claudio Smith) and his servant La Fleche (Craig Doescher), attack Harpagon in a pincer movement: Cleante through birdbrained peacockery and La Fleche through guile and quick-footedness. Even the goofy subplot involving Master Jacques (Darragh Kennan, a little bit Hunchback of Notre Dame, a little bit snooty French chef) gets its laughs.

Photos: (top) Todd Jefferson Moore and Leslie Law, (bottom) Brian Claudio Smith, Todd Jefferson Moore, and Jennifer Sue Johnson. Photos by John Ulman.