Word: caliphs
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...make the bad moments of the show so hilariously poor that you can't complain. On the other hand, thanks primarily to Alfred Drake, Kismet's good moments are very enjoyable indeed. In Otis Skinner's old role of the resourceful beggar who marries off his daughter to the Caliph, drake is even more personable than he was in Kiss Me Kate. Drake is onstage almost continuously,a nd his jaunty gusto as he revels in the foolishness of the script sets the tone and pace of the whole production. With a sturdy baritone and superb diction, Drake gives...
...make the bad moments of the show so hilariously poor that you can't complain. On the other hand, thanks primarily to Alfred Drake, Kismet's good moments are very enjoyable indeed. In Otis Skinner's old role of the resourceful beggar who marries off his daughter to the Caliph, Drake is even more personable than he was in Kiss Mc Kate. Drake is onstage almost continuously, and his jaunty gusto as he revels in the foolishness of the script sets the tone and pace of the whole production. With a sturdy baritone and superb diction, Drake gives his songs...
With the exception of Glenn Burris, the Caliph, the other performers match Drake's buoyancy very well. Henry Calvin plays the Wazir of Police with a cheerful ghoulishness reminiscent of Fancourt's Mikado. In "Was I Wazir," with an accompaniment wisely lifted from Wonderful Town rather than In Central Asia,Calvin has one of the best bits in the show. Joan Diener, as the Wazir's crrant wife, is sultry and sarcastic, with a figure to please even the most myopic in the second balcony. With comic relish, she joins Drake in the slaughter of a smutty little horror called...
This suited Kemal fine. Arriving in Anatolia, he convoked a congress and proclaimed: "The aim of the movement is to free the Sultan-Caliph from the clutches of the foreign enemy." Desperately, the Sultan, who did not want to be so freed, wired: "Cease all activity!" Replied Kemal: "I shall stay in Anatolia until the nation wins its independence." Turkey, or what was left of it, had two governments: Kemal's and the Sultan...
...republic, commander in chief of the army, president of the Council of Ministers, chief of the only party, and speaker of the Assembly. He began ridding the Turks of the things that reminded them of the degenerate past. First he ordered the Sultan expelled; 16 months later the Caliph (or Moslem spiritual leader) was exiled. Kemal announced that "Islam is a dead thing," and Turkey became a nondenominational state...