Design for Living at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble

Design for Living

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd Los Angeles

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble presents Design for Living, a witty and charming romantic comedy by Noel Coward that was banned in 1930s London for its risque content and bawdy themes. Otto loves Gilda. But... so does Leo. Gilda loves Otto... but she also loves Leo. And what's going on between Otto and Leo? Filled with Coward's scintillating dialogue, Design for Living is an emotional, dramatic, hilarious and scandalous love triangle. Or as the threesome's longtime friend Ernest Friedman calls it, "a three-sided, erotic hotch-potch." It's a revolving door of passion, treachery and never-ending champagne. Can love prevail against the norms of society?

Thru - Aug 25, 2024

Show Type: Comedy

Box Office: 310-477-2055

www.odysseytheatre.com

Odyssey Theatre Ensemble Seating Charts

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Design for Living Reviews

Average Rating based on 4 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Stage Scene LA - Somewhat Recommended

"...An Americanized trio of romantic protagonists and a gay subtext made explicit are two reasons Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s provocative but problematic staging of Noël Coward’s Design For Living is a far cry from the one Broadway audiences first discovered back in 1933."

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- Steven Stanley

Stage Raw - Somewhat Recommended

"...Bart DeLorenzo’s direction of this sultry, ribald romantic comedy is surprisingly humorless, innocuous. Chemistry is missing across the board. Many of the meaningful moments written thoughtfully into the script are left behind. And with such an on-the-surface approach, the performers are simply given nowhere to go emotionally, making any comedic or dramatic twists and turns appear as unsurprising and inevitable happenstance."

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- V Cate

Ticket Holders LA - Recommended

"...There’s no doubt that director Bart DeLorenzo is one of our most gifted visionaries, brilliantly interpreting and often reinventing many of our most beloved classics over the years, but I’m not sure what he was thinking here—or why he didn’t make a drastic u-turn when he saw how this must have been progressing in rehearsal. To choose to deliver the arch and grandly theatrical dialogue of one of Coward’s intensely British drawing room comedies without adopting the accompanying intrinsic RP-style delivery written into the speech is a major conundrum; there’s a rhythm and musicality to the lines that simply cannot be conveyed by articulating them in an American accent."

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- Travis Michael Holder

Broadway World - Highly Recommended

"...Design for Living is a stylish, escapist, classic sex comedy by Noel Coward at the Odyssey Theatre through August 25th. A glamorous, pansexual, queer 1930s romp through the world of artists, playwrights, interior decorators, and their lovers, it was an instant hit with the sold-out audience on the afternoon I attended, who loved every minute of it."

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- Amanda Callas

Design for Living at Odyssey Theatre Ensemble