An Ideal Husband

The L.A. Theatre Works performs plays tailored for a radio format before live audiences. The works are treats for the ear: Each features first-rate performances, rich but not overdone sound effects, evocative background music, expert engineering and the immediacy of an audience's live responses. AN IDEAL HUSBAND, Oscar Wilde's 1895 comedy, shows how a good adaptation of a classic play can speak to the present age. Martin Jarvis and director Michael Hackett have slightly streamlined Wilde's play about a rising politician with a secret in his past whose efforts to prevent exposure call attention to the hypocrisy of holding our leaders to higher standards than we ourselves live by. The large cast handles the witty dialogue with delicacy: Jacqueline Bisset charmingly plays one of dramatic literature's most polite blackmailers. The insouciance of the performances emphasizes rather than detracts from the play's serious theme of social hypocrisy. G.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Shaun MacLaughlin's direction of this Wilde play strives for an effective dramatic reading, rather than a fully realized radio-drama production with sound effects and atmospheric music.The production uses a narrator (Michael Drew) to read the stage directions, a choice that works well here. As principal characters arrive at a dinner party, the narration distinguishes them by including Wilde's witty, discerning observations. Such directorial emphasis calls attention to Wilde's brilliant dialogue and the strong performances. Derek Jacobi plays Sir Robert Chiltern, a rising politician who seeks to retaliate against his blackmailer, Mrs. Cheveley, played by Jane Lapotaire. Their coy battle of wits benefits from MacLaughlin's slow pacing. G.H. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine