Word: arnolds
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Even so, some doctors believe that mixing the profit motive with the Hippocratic oath is a poor way to provide medical care. Dr. Arnold Relman, editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, criticizes companies like Humana, saying that they are "industrializing medical care" and are more interested in turning a profit than providing health services. Relman argues that the chains will eliminate necessary medical programs rather than take a loss on them...
That indeed is the point of the play, a collection of three one-act vignettes written separately that cover six years in Arnold's life (and in Fierstein's life, as it is largely autobiographical). Stretching over 10 scenes and two intermissions in 3 hours and 30 minutes, the play is long and runs the risk of losing its audience. Occasionally, the pacing does drag and one can't help from checking the watch or fidgeting with the coat. Overall, however, the dialogue as presented by some very fine performers entices us, and we can truly empathize with Arnold...
...ARNOLD, Charles Adler takes on a very demanding role which requires him to be on stage, exposing his soul throughout the entire play. Adler begins rather weakly, coming off as a whining, complaining nuisance. He improves rapidly, however, and by the cathartic third act we must believe that Arnold is indeed very proud of what he is, what he does, and what he wants to do. He doesn't want the squalor of the back room bars; he wants a neat apartment near a park, a nice place where he can build his family. Adler quite successfully reveals Arnold...
Estelle Getty, repeating her Broadway portrayal of Arnold's mother, is superb as the classic sharp-witted fastidious Jewish mother, who can not come to accept her son's way of life. With perfect comic timing and the characteristic Brooklynese--moved--to--Miami Beach inflections, Getty delivers such gems as "You have your whole life ahead of you...while mine is flashing before my eyes," "What do I say...do I tell you how to run your life?" and the ultimate, "You get only one mother in this world." Through the humor and blunt directness, she expresses her own pain...
Among the other cast members. Meg Mackay is very strong as the "other" woman, cuttingly sarcastic and yet quite vulnerable, giving almost a heterosexual mirror image of Arnold. Christopher Stryker is wonderfully vapid and shallow as Alan, the pretty model who Arnold takes up with on the rebound; Jonathan Del Arco is impressive as the gay teenager Arnold seeks to adopt. Only Tom Stechschulte, as the confused bisexual Ed, doesn't quite measure up to the caliber of the other performances...