Shift your consciousness back about 230 years, to a different, somewhat stilted style of writing, and soon the universality of the humor in this ancient soap opera begins to work, and the laughs emerge in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals, now at Lincoln Center. Sheridan is a master of wordplay, and his Mrs. Malaprop's ridiculous inappropriateness in her use of words has become part of our common language. Mischief makers, fools, lovers -- Sheridan's trick is that here and there a hint of almost malapropism slips into everyone's speech.\
Dana Ivey's Mrs. M lifts the play with her every appearance, and her clear diction underlines the jokes. Jeremy Shamos makes a powerful idiot, Richard Easton is the ultimate martinet of a father, and the lovers, Matt Letscher and Emily Bergl, are appropriately attractive and sincere. The entire cast is excellent, and costumes by Jess Goldstein help set the era quite well until the caricature dresses of Ivey and Bergl late in the play which try to underline the ridiculousness of the scene, and so undermine it. John Lee Beatty's classic Commedia set is just right, and Mark Lamos has directed The Rivals with a sure sense of comedy timing.
