Word: bassanio
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Robert Blackburn brings plenty of verve to the role of the play's hero, Bassanio. Basil Langton fails to give much color to the flat title role of Antonio. Malocclusive sibilants unsuit Thomas Hill (the Duke of Venice) for classical speaking; he should stick to playing Willy Loman and other such parts, which are ideal for him. Of the smaller roles, Robert Jordan's Solanio is outstanding...
...Honey ..." Waldron still spins such platters as Bebop Baby and Black Slacks, still chatters on about his sponsor's solid products, still gives the latest news bulletins every half-hour. But in between, he must find out whom Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice married, define "scyphus," reel off the precautions that should be taken when making an atomic reactor or ponder such posers as how fast a snowball of a given diameter must go to melt on impact with a wall of a given temperature. Though he sometimes postpones the more difficult questions, he usually finds something...
...other actors tend to pall a little beside Loeb, but nearly all of them redeem themselves in the truly funny final scene. Here Edith Iselin, as Portia, and Paul Schmidt, as Bassanio, lose their initial remoteness and become recognizable as lovers. Jean Loud, in the part of Nerissa, is charming throughout, gaining stature as the play progresses. As Launcelot Gobbo, a clown, Michael Pollatsek injects some humor into the early scenes by cleverly contrived pomposity and overacting. Ernest Eugene Pell, on the other hand, gives a somewhat too unobtrusive, if competent, performance as Antonio, the Merchant. Yet the only serious...
...indicate that he intended Shylock to be a mixture of good and evil. At one moment you laugh at his tears for his daughter and his ducats, but the sincere lament that follows immediately after for the loss of Leah's ring certainly arouses anything but scorn. Again, when Bassanio and Antoncate comedy, and Shylock a wretch who gets his just deserts, but he is not a stage villain of Gothic blackness. Instead, Mr. Moscovitz shows a fusion of contradictory emotions: gile and hate mixed with love and sincerety, a true Shakesperean character...
...remainder of the cast unfortunately falls below the level of the principles, although Maury Tuckerman as Launcelot Gobbo and Geoffrey Ward well as Bassanio are above the average. The opening performance was marred by several of the minor characters forgetting their lines and a general uncertainty about the mechanics of the piece, but with a few more performances, the entire cast should be able to support Mr. Moscovitch adequately. The use of the same scenery used by George Arliss several years ago provides a very beautiful background upon which to present so much good acting. If the company...