Word: bested
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Just a Beginning Can he succeed? The problems South Africa faces would challenge even the best- run nation, and South Africa is far from that. State institutions have been hurt by the departure or exclusion of apartheid-era workers and their replacement with officials too often appointed for their political connections. Zuma's aide says the biggest obstacles to success are "corruption and ineptness in the bureaucracy." But reforming the civil service would mean turning on many of those who put him in power. "There is one very bold thing that can be done," says Andrew Feinstein, a dissident former...
...song’s best for winter,” R&B queen Serena tells her young son in the American Repertory Theater’s “Best of Both Worlds,” the new gospel adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” playing at the Loeb Drama Center through Jan. 3. Unfortunately, such sad songs are just about the only agreeable aspect of the show; to deem anything the “best” in this disappointingly mediocre production would be to issue a gross...
...Best of Both Worlds” frames “The Winter’s Tale” in an R&B world in which Shakespeare’s rival monarchs are now kings of soul, or “chocolate royalty,” and music has the power to heal. One of the kings, Ezekiel (Gregg Baker), devastates his empire when he accuses wife Serena (Jeanette Bayardelle) of having an affair with his former best friend Maurice (Darius de Haas). Despair at Serena’s banishment eventually leads to redemption in the restorative second...
This magical moment also leads to the abrupt religious awakening “Best of Both Worlds” seems to undergo. For an alleged gospel musical, the show hardly contains spiritual overtones until the very end—and by then, it is too late to force these ideas on the audience quite so intensely...
...Best of Both Worlds” seems to inadvertently illustrate that there is a limit to active spectatorship in the theater. There is nothing wrong with the audience simply sitting in their seats and watching a show in front of them, especially when it best serves the material. Ultimately, the gospel music that cures the soul and Ezekiel’s family fails to cure this production’s many woes. Music’s healing power has reached its limit...