Word: camelot
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...long after JFK's death, the memories of the man and the myth of Camelot remain ripe in the American psyche. But most Americans would be hard-pressed to list Kennedy's top legislative accomplishments. Aside from the Peace Corps, the Bay of Pigs debacle and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy is not remembered for the substantive achievements of his presidency...
Bill Clinton, whose political baptism was a 1963 handshake with Kennedy, has so far failed to revive Camelot precisely because he has been unable to inspire Americans in the way that JFK did. He has invoked the Kennedy legacy through policy proposals (the National Service Act--a domestic Peace Corps), lofty ambiguities (the New Covenant--a Southern Baptist's New Frontier), and a series of staged events (Maya Angelo's inaugural poem a la Robert Frost, a Rose Garden reception for Boys' Nation 30 years--to the day--after Clinton's encounter with Kennedy...
What year is it on Broadway? Is it 1963, when this season's first musical, She Loves Me, made its original debut? Or 1960, when this season's Camelot first put castles in the air? Or perhaps 1956, when this season's My Fair Lady gave elocution a song and dance? Maybe it's 1955, when this season's Damn Yankees first proved that whatever Lola wants, Lola gets. Perhaps it's as modern as 1968, when this season's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat first displayed the talents of Andrew Lloyd Webber. Or perhaps...
...expensive. "A major reason that revivals have a bad name," says Guys and Dolls producer David, "is that they tend to be star-driven and lacking in production values -- cardboard shows with Robert Goulet." Broadway has already had one such show this season: a cheesily staged and preposterously acted Camelot, starring Goulet in a performance as animated as a computer telephone voice, that came and mercifully went...
...post-baby boomers, who were born after the 1960 presidential campaign, seem to have no clear picture of the man or his times. Camelot, the myth created by his wife and court after the assassination, means almost nothing to them. The political revisionism that followed, portraying Kennedy as a self- serving cold warrior, means little more to them because they know almost nothing of the history that was being so energetically revised...