Word: cleverisms
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...original like "some kind of weird Oriental minstrel show," as one character puts it, and wraps its assimilationist anthems into a merry multicultural trip from Tiananmen Square to San Francisco's Chinatown. Director-choreographer Robert Longbottom adds a dollop of kitsch--and somehow the mix is funny and clever. It even jerks a tear or two. Broadway, get ready...
Person of the Week ICHIBAN! American League mvp winner Ichiro Suzuki is more than just the first Asian position player to excel in U.S. baseball. He has also reminded us, in this era of runaway home run inflation, that smart hitting, slick fielding and clever baserunning are what the game is really about...
...when the bits are more inspired, wow. There is a death-by-falling sequence that would be tremendously clever even if it weren’t mocking falls in musicals such as Les Miserables. And all of the scenes that depict dead characters are accomplished not only with the right amount of hokey acting and writing but with a low budget effect that grows funnier each time it recurs. Like similar on-the-cheap elements in the show, it humorously riffs on the low budget nature of Urinetown while exposing the frailty of such a device when employed seriously...
...that’s what Urinetown does best of all—sell its songs. Each features pleasant music by Mark Hollman, clever lyrics from Hollman and Greg Kotis and belongs to a recognizable genre that it not only parodies, but does so in a variety of often unexpected ways, while paying a sort of tribute to that which it mocks. A song to unite and rouse unorganized rebels takes the form of a gospel revival number before morphing into a choral piece with an actor gleefully conducting all those around him. An inspirational number that later echoes it mocks...
...Business of Strangers is not a fun movie; a few clever lines are humorous but the subject matter is a serious one and the overall projection for being female in today’s world is negative. Stettner aims simply to point this out, in all its forms, not to provide a solution to the problem. Except for the extremity of the character of Murphy and some of her frequently unbelievable actions, the movie is faithful to reality and knows its bounds, which is one of its strengths and keeps it from trying to achieve too much...