Original caricature by Jeff York of Kelli O’Hara and Rose Byrne in the Broadway revival of FALLEN ANGELS and filmed for the cinema (copyright 2026)
Why aren’t more Broadway shows filmed for film or television?
A stage recording preserves the performance for posterity and brings the experience of a high-priced Broadway ticket to the general public across the country. It was famously done for HAMILTON in 2020, and now it’s being done for FALLEN ANGELS, the uproarious 2026 revival that ran at the Todd Haimes Theater in NYC from March 27 to June 7 and was presented by the Roundabout Theater Company.
Thanks to Trafalgar Releasing for capturing one of its Broadway performances live, the recording is hilarious and incredibly well shot, edited, and produced, from the costumes to the set to the lighting. It is a genuine treat to see stars Rose Byrne and Kelli O’Hara bring this show to life on stage, and even more so for movie audiences to experience it in theaters starting October 22nd.
Noël Coward wrote FALLEN ANGELS in 1925, and it caused quite a stir. Its themes of premarital sex and adultery led to the play being condemned, banned, and even forbidden from being performed in various countries. Last year’s Broadway revival showed that time has muted such controversies, with the two leading characters’ excessive drunkenness likely the only real eyebrow-raiser left.
The plot centers on Julia (O’Hara) and Jane (Byrne), two upper-crust, bored housewives and best friends, who learn that Maurice Duclos (the ever-elegant, smoldering Mark Consuelos), the debonair Frenchman they both dated in their younger days, is coming to visit them in New York. They eagerly await his arrival at Julia’s elegant high-rise apartment, and with each passing minute, they get hornier, thornier, and can barely keep their competitive jealousy in check. They start to rely on alcohol to calm their nerves and soon enough, they are letting their elegant facades morph into the form of two embarrassing lushes.
The women’s banter grows sloppier, disjointed, and more and more insulting as they keep downing the booze. The two actresses have an absolute field day with the comedy, and the cast, including Tracy Chimo as Julia’s chatty, aggressive maid and Aasif Mandvi and Christopher Fitzgerald as their stuffed-shirt husbands on a golf holiday, ably support them. Veteran Broadway director Scott Ellis, working with Annette Jolles, has filmed this all perfectly, with just the right amount of close-ups mixing with medium shots to give us in the audience the feeling of being in the theater watching it live, while being afforded the privilege of getting in closer to the performers like only film cameras can.
It’s rare to see comedies on Broadway these days, as television seems to have rendered the need almost obsolete, but some of these old chestnuts deserve revivals like Coward’s masterpiece. This production earned multiple Tony nominations, including Best Revival; Best Lead Actress for both Byrne and O’Hara; Best Scenic Design; and Best Costume Design, with Jeff Mahshie’s elegant frocks winning the last category. Bravo to all, and to this divine comedy.
Please, Broadway and cinema chains, do more of this!
