While observing a performance of his play, “The Two Of Us,” from backstage in 1975, English playwright Michael Frayn decided he found the play much funnier and satisfying from that perspective than from up front. In 1977, he wrote a one-act backstage comedy titled “Exits,” demonstrating what happens when things go wrong. Eventually, “Exits” was expanded into a Three-Act play and re-titled “Noises Off,” and it opened at London’s Lyric Theatre in 1982. It jumped the pond to Broadway in 1983. It is well-loved by professional and community theatre audiences, even though it requires a huge, two-story set that rotates between acts to show both the front and backstage areas of a touring play. Because the comedy is so outrageous and hilarious, producing theatres feel the effort is well worth the undertaking.
