Word: casts
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Arrival at the Loeb. Ford and VanDyke bang on the door. Three cast members of "Death of Santiago" cautiously let the two in once they see the SafeStreets reflective sashes. Apparrently, the caller has decided to go it alone but the escorts search both sides of the theater anyway. Mission aborted. The escorts head back into the rain...
...direction of this play is as schizophrenic as the cast's performance. Patrick Gurian and Jeff Hass both try to retain the Victorian sparkle of the comedy by injecting contemporary and meta-dramatic references. Such hi-jinks, however, are sparse and tend to be more distracting than anything else, especially after the actors have kicked into high gear...
...When the brothers get holed up together in their mother's house, sparks fly. Insults fly. Silverware, toasters and golf clubs fly, too. By the end of Sam Shepard's True West, the kitchen is a disaster area worthy of any Harvard undergrad's living quarters. Not even the cast from Risky Business could clean up this mess before Mom got home...
Although the supporting cast cannot match the brothers' intensity or composure, its members are adequate. Byrd is not quite slimy enough as the money-hungry producer, but he does a nice job in his second-act apologies to Connell. Eliza Clark, who plays the brothers' mother, makes her inevitable appearance late in the second act. Her deadpan senility (She has come from Alaska to the oppressive Midwestern heat without removing her winter coat) is difficult to accept, but she wisely remains in the background during the fascinating resolution of the brothers' conflict...
...which Sullivan used to indulge his Wagnerian pretenses, lacks any memorable tunes. Gilbert and Sulivan devotees won't be completely disappointed, though, because Princess Ida contains all of the elements the pair is famous for. Patter songs, topical jokes and absurd characters abound, and the part undergraduate, part professional cast makes the most of what they are given...