"One false move and we could have a farce on our hands," says a character in Tom Stoppard's On the Razzle. Thank goodness for false moves, because the audience at the American première of Stoppard's new work certainly has a farce on its hands—and on its eyes and most especially on its ears. In this razzling, dazzling comic romp …, Stoppard sends not only his characters but his words through the collision course that is the essence of farce.

The play is Stoppard's loose but sporty adaptation of Johann Nestroy's 1842 comedy, which was the source for Thornton Wilder's play "The Matchmaker," which in turn led to "Hello, Dolly!" Even without Dolly it's a doll of a play, with Stoppard taking us back to the original setting of mid-19th-century Vienna, where we meet Zangler, the prosperous greengrocer who goes into town in pursuit of his fiancée...