Word: burtonizing
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
King uses a freeze-frame technique to good effect in numbers like "Another Hundred People": the action alternates between Robert talking to different girlfriends as Marta (Jennifer Susan Burton), invisible, listens in; and Marta singing a commentary while the other two freeze in the background...
...performance, like her voice, is uneven. She drops octaves at will, often with little purpose, and the almost sing-song nature of her voice makes her sound at one moment girlish, at another manly. Yet often her guttural inflections serve her well, as she threatens either Sybil or Elyot. Burton fares better, for he avoids Taylor's tendency to slip into broad, overstated gestures. However, Burton's disinterested demeanor occasionally seems to reflect a boredom with his part. And his and Taylor's hostile interludes lead to the play's most unintentionally humorous moments...
...Katselas shamelessly tantalizes the audience. Years before, we learn. Amanda broke a few records over Elyot's head. So Katselas sends Taylor to the gramophone again and again to pick up a few records casually, with a suggestive tilt of her head and a furrowed brow. When Taylor and Burton finally go at it--not only with records but also pillows, and newspapers--it's as if one were watching a parody of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (though that movie was gracious enough to avoid airborne and partially chewed grapes). Other scenes seem misdirected and heavy-handed...
...over how funny this play is. I didn't expect it to be funny," one theatergoer said as he left. Chances are, for better and for worse, many won't be able to "get over" the fun of watching Taylor and Burton on stage, either in person, or on the screen. Television's ubiquitous Entertainment Tonight was at a recent performance, filming highlights, ready to scoop People magazine with a story on Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's--rather, Noel Coward's--Private Lives...
...Phillip Burton, Representative