Word: almanac
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...Franklin, for instance, who invented the bifocal, the Franklin stove, and said all those laboriously droll things in Poor Richard's Almanac"? Not so, says the hero; it was a loyal mouse who gave Ben the big idea in every instance, and who furthermore rode the kite the day electricity was discovered...
Unless you are intent on seeing something more or less serious, you would do far better to spend your money on Almanac, which a month in Boston has turned into a fine show. Two weeks and a miracle would barely do the same for In the Summer House...
Since Mr. Anderson tries out a new shuffle of scenes at every performance, no-one can predict Almanac's state at the end of a month's run here. It is not difficult to see, however, that compression is the main problem to be solved. The problem is apparent not only in the remarkable sprawl of the whole show, but in individual scenes as well...
...ingredients of Almanac are the revue staples--satiric sketches, comic monologues, and production numbers. Even more stubbornly than the usual revue, however, the show makes no attempt to tie them with a cohesive thread. The only common elements of the scenes are the superb settings by Pene Du Bois and Thomas Becher, innocuous and infinitely forgettable music by a dozen composers, and a general sophistication which often seems precious. Particularly expressive of these three elements are a "Ballet Ballad" from a story by Oscar Wilde and the opening number, pretentiously invoking the Spirit of Theatre and dull musically, yet striking...
...Almanac is at its best when Harry Belafonte sings with his intriguing Calypso style and in a few of the sketches for De Wolfe and Miss Gingold. Occasionally bizarre, like "Dinner for One," an aged spinster's banquet for suitors dead and gone, most of these skits have considerable wit and imagination. Though the parody of "Picnic" is rather distasteful, De Wolfe takes a delightful poke at "My Cousin Rachel." Miss Gingold, however, as the dancer, "La Pistachio," provides the most entertaining moments of the revue. Garbed in an uproarious butterfly costume, the lusty old harridan is hilarious...