Word: clowning
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...experiences are better kept to myself," declared English-born Maud Shaw when she left the service of the Kennedy family last summer. Unsurprisingly, she has changed her mind. Her little trickle into the flood of Kennediana includes some nursery-level characterizations of the children (John is "the clown . . . a natural comic," while Caroline, like her mother, is "the quieter, more reserved of the two, slow to make friends") and a few intriguing anecdotes. There was, for example, the time when Caroline first became aware of people's color. Once she noticed that she was turning brown...
...hero is a clown-faced, baggy-trousered petit-Marceau named Little-chap, who sings, mugs and mimes his way up into the British Establishment. Replacing Newley in this role, Comedian Tony Tanner plays it with the same cockney assurance. Quadrupling as his wife and his Russian, American and Japanese sweethearts, Millicent Martin is a model of cool English efficiency. The rest of the world's population, grouping and regrouping on a semicircular set, is portrayed by 23 exquisite Greek-chorus girls. Fortunately, every attempt at social significance disappears on the instant behind a frieze of smiles, swiveling hips...
...have emphasized the difficulties of the script. Miss Picker herself has chosen to take on the role of Sophia, a very difficult assignment. At one time or another, Sophia is called beautiful, inspiring, fascinating, a good dancer, and a brilliant actress (she must play a gypsy and a clown in bits within the show). I don't think there's an actress at Radcliffe equipped to play the part well, and Miss Picker, though she has several good moments, is hampered by a monotonous and not altogether pleasant voice...
...cocaloony bird struts around on stage looking rather like a giant pelican with a Ph.D., and an Indian in a red, white and blue monokini war-whoops things up. The locale is "the Big Dormitory," and on the porch of this flophouse rock two marijuana-smoking harpies, a slatternly clown (Kate Reid), who runs the joint, and a local society editor (Zoe Caldwell), who seems to have escaped from a flour barrel. Miss Caldwell is an auspicious new acting presence on Broadway. But the play is a rubber-dagger stab at theater of the absurd that lacks lonesco...
...actors themselves were a pretty dreary lot with the exception of that brilliant clown Paul Benedict and the more-Aryan-than-Thou Larry Bryggman. Jo Lane was tedious in the virtuoso role of "The Jewish Wife" and Ted Kazanoff inadequate as the perplexed Judge in "Quest for Justice." Granted it was opening night, I wonder if that is any excuse in a professional company for the inordinate number of missed cues, dropped lines, and fumbled props. The one bright note was the new translation by the Harvard Graduate School's own Kenneth Tigar and Clayton Koelb, which sounded superior...