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MUSICAL REVUES are the stage craze of the hour, at Harvard and in professional theaters. Last fall two student-written revues in the Houses played to big audiences; Ain't Misbehavin', a set of Fats Waller numbers, won the Tony for Best Musical of 1978 and just opened in Boston; and last week this hardy genre of theater made it to the Loeb Mainstage in the form of Ellington at Eight, a collection of Duke Ellington classics. It shivered a bit in the Loeb's vasty spaces, but perked up its head and boldly smiled on. Despite occasional lapses...
...easier to remember them from one number to the next. But, merged into a company, as at the beginning and end of the show, it was the performers' collective energy and not their individuality that shone. Der Manuelian made "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" both the opening and closing number. It served well--the chorus has an unforgettable tune, and "doo-wah, doo-wah"s, too. Another group number, "Ring Dem Bells," smartly choreographed and lively, gave Joe Orlando and his colleagues a chance to show their skill with batons, which they...
...Hays--each had show-stealing songs. Banks's "Love You Madly" used a great bit of stage business, bringing the entire cast out from under a giant envelope onstage, but Banks's deep-chested, poignant singing elevated the song from cuteness. Griffin made "I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good" the model of a torch song, alone on stage with nothing but a non-functional microphone, a spotlight and her voice--but that was enough. Hays deserves the garland for the single most beautiful song of the evening; "Don't You Know I Care" in her hands, from...
...dominant tone was humorous and self-deprecating. She liked playing the country bumpkin, sprinkling her language with "ain'ts" and "naws." Pomposity of all stripes put her on guard. When a pen pal confessed she felt uneasy about corresponding with a celebrity, Flannery reassured her that fame is "a comic distinction shared with Roy Rogers's horse and Miss Watermelon of 1955." Outside of writing and reading, her chief activity was raising birds, and she regaled everyone with anecdotes about them, especially her beloved peacocks: "I used to say I wanted so many of them that every time...
...Ain't Misbehavin...