The School for Lies, the latest and possibly greatest bit of intertextual frottage from wit nonpareil David Ives (All in the Timing, Venus in Fur), is basically what La Bête could've been: a goofy-literate, utterly scrumptious riff on Molière, free from self-seriousness and overwriting. Starting with a near photocopy of The Misanthrope—with the lovely Mamie Gummer as morally labile Célimène and sexy-spastic Hamish Linklater as a party-pooper name Frank—Ives's brainy slapstick metacomedy operates on a level of verbal play seldom seen outside Sondheim's skull. If Cole Porter joined forces with Richard Wilbur—well, they'd still call in Ives for a punch-up.
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