Word: comic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Fuller has forsaken the stage-- where he's played heroes from Ralph Rackstraw to Nanki Poo-- to make his directorial debut. Fuller's production of Iolanthe lacks the inventiveness of past G&S shows like the gimmicky H.M.S. Pinafore of two years ago, but it features moments of comic brilliance rarely matched on the Harvard stage. The scene in which two Lords try to decide which will win the hand of fair young Phyllis is superbly executed, with Jeff Zax and Clifton Lewis playing off each other like pros. Dennis Crowley mades an equisitely tormented Lord Chancellor, Susan...
...found his calling as a master of black comedy and satire. Other novels, among them Vile Bodies, A Handful of Dust and Black Mischief, followed regularly throughout the '30s, always in Waugh's elegant, crystalline style. He traveled adventurously, a fascinated observer of the often comic clash between primitive and advanced cultures. From a newspaper assignment to cover the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, he got the material for Scoop, still a hilarious guide to the adrenaline world of journalism. Much of the novel's lunatic telegraphese was pure reportage. After the invasion, for example, newspaper offices heard...
...sketch that raises the Harvard in-joke to a true comic art form comes from a surprising source in this student-written show--Paul Cantor, assistant professor of English. "Let's Make the Grade" is a game show hosted by a bouncy emcee named Sever Hall and featuring prizes like a year's supply of A papers and admission to a graduate school of your choice. The first contestant, one Mary Sue Literati, starts out trading her admission letter to Yale for the surprise behind Door Three--which turns out to be admission to a selective concentration, History and Literature...
...high is remarkable, considering there are about a dozen authors involved, and the few sketches that do drag--particularly in the second half of the show--might look better if they weren't in such brilliant surroundings. One problem is that because the tone of the show is overwhelmingly comic, the three or four serious, romantic songs that sneak in are a little jarring--you're kind of waiting for the punch line and feel silly when it doesn't come. But these numbers are all so good in themselves--particularly John Spritz's "Out There," a sad and realistic...
...member cast is as consistently dazzling as the authors, each actor displaying the versatility necessary to make a revue of this sort work. All six have lovely voices and fine ears for comic nuance, but if anyone stands out among this talented group it is Sarah McCluskey, who has a sense of timing that can wring the maximum possible amount of laughter out of any joke...