Word: comic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...cast's spirited foolery inoculates the evening with laughter, and John Lithgow's pell-mell direction would probably secure a friendly salute from the dean of comic mayhem, George Abbott, now 88, who directed Boy Meets Girl the first time, 41 years...
...agility, it releases tonic exuberance. As an object of humiliation through banana-peel pratfalls or pies in the face, it evokes instant delight. Even distortions or grotesqueries of the body-obesity, dwarfishness, eccentric gaits, tics, stutters, deafness and drunken staggers-have all been known to provoke a startling comic catharsis in playgoers...
...silent film thrived on that catharsis. So did vaudeville, and that Broadway combustion engine of explosive anarchy known as Hellzapoppin. Britain's Monty Python troupe, which opened live at Manhattan's City Center last week, renews that comic tradition, and its success in television, movies and now, onstage, shows that many audiences are parched for it. If there is anything novel about the Pythonites (six men, with extras for this production), it is only that they are practicing comic karate, English-style, and Americans always find it strangely exotic to think of the British as vulgar, irreverent, silly...
...PRODUCTION'S CAST is generally excellent. Emily Altman as Monica, and Jenny Marre as Liz are outstanding, delivering their lines with precise comic timing. Altman skillfully portrays the long-suffering secretary who manages Garry's business affairs while Marre captures the combination of grace, warmth, and level-headedness that makes Liz a perfect complement to Garry's irresponsibility. Philip Kraft turns in a hilarious character bit as Roland Maule, affecting nervous and eccentric mannerisms that convincingly delineate his madness. But Susan Schwartz is miscast as the seductive and elegantly attractive Joanna; she is just too abrasive and overtly aggressive. Joanna...
Certainly anyone can respond to recycled banalities masquerading as conversation, an edgy concern with appearances, the nose sniff of gossip and the binocular gaze at just who is where on the money-and-status escalator. Ayckbourn has honed this knowledge to hairbreadth comic precision...