Word: cleopatras
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...diction of the huge company assembled in Robert Chapman's production of Ceasar and Cleopatra is the finest I have ever heard in the vault of the Loeb mainstage auditorium. Every word and phrase spoken is clear, and the balance of voices is carefully, even scrupulously, maintained. A technical point of this sort may seem a strange point of departure for more general praise of this staging of Shaw's ideological spectacular, particularly since such matters as diction are always more notable for their lack than their presence. But the virtue of this Caesar and Cleopatra lies in the words...
MOST gifted in this alchemical effort are Daniel Seltzer as Caesar, and Susan Yakutis as Cleopatra. Seltzer's performance is especially impressive: not only are his readings rapid and controlled, but he succeeds in underplaying effectively a role which would tempt any actor to bravado. As the ultimate embodiment of the Shavian pragmatic, democratic, sympathetic Superman, he also manages to convey a vision of humility in majesty. Further, his discipline deserves to underline the character's moments of wit and emotion, and to set the lonely Caesar apart from the more broadly drawn figures who surround him. The greatest virtues...
Where Caesar is magnificently consistent, Cleopatra is a little anthology of feminine character. In the course of the play she not only matures from kitten to queen, but exercises her option for whimsical action to the fullest. Miss Yakutis handles the various phases, moods, and transitions with considerable skill, and like Seltzer she shines in the scenes of intimate conversation. My only objection to her portrayal is that it leans something too heavily on the prop of youth. Even at her first meeting with Caesar, Cleopatra must be something more than girlish--she must demonstrate a potential for rule...
...York, his sometime critics grudgingly concede that the kid with the sulphurous temper has something-and besides he isn't a kid any more. Since the financial success of The Sound of Music- a Dick Zanuck product all the way-Fox has moved steadily from post-Cleopatra losses to $15,420,000 in net profits in 1967. Listed for production are such ambitious projects as: Hello, Dolly!; Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet; Staircase, a comedy about two aging homosexuals;The Great White Hope, a corrosive drama of Negro prejudice...
Couching his pacifist message in Gallic irony, Giraudoux bandies about the question of whether the Trojans should pledge their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to hold onto Helen, the world's most beautiful woman. As with the role of Cleopatra, it is virtually impossible for any actress to live up to that kind of advance billing. Jennifer West fails abysmally by playing Helen as a dumb, dumb blonde, more waitress than temptress; far from launching a thousand ships, it appears doubtful whether she could pilot a coffee cup across a hash house...