Word: comic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...California artist Deborah Butterfield. There is also a hilarious piece of funkiness by a Texas sculptor, James Surls, representing a tornado chewing through the roof of a church; Surls' debt to that master of buckeye surrealism, H.C. Westermann, is ob vious enough, but the image has a wobbly comic-strip blatancy about it that carries conviction...
Broadway's paladin of laughter is back. It almost seems like an act of chivalry for Neil Simon to bestow his tonic comic gifts on a season as arid as this one has been. Of course, he has able assistance in this musical that, according to a program note, is "loosely based on the real-life relationship between the show's composer Marvin Hamlisch and its lyricist Carole Bayer Sager." Perhaps that is why the sharp crackle of humor in They 're Playing Our Song seems to emanate from a warming log fire of shared humanity...
...pirate sweeping a deck. Arnaz matches his strength, and she sings her lyrics in-depth with Streisand's gift for matching feeling with meaning. She hurdles the barricade of being the daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz by imitating neither, but she has inherited their incomparable comic timing...
What O'Leary achieves with actions, super-freshman Hanes does with words. Not only does he have the egocentric villain character nailed ("Natalie, I believe I've found myself overqualified for life as we know it."), but the kid knows how to play off the audience like the great comic actors. Hanes is raw material, and when he goes into the Elvis-takeoff tune "Stud" (my favorite song in the show, complete with background choreograpy in the finest Motown tradition), you'll know he doesn't spend his Saturday nights watching "Mannix...
...Much of the characteristic Simon with bubbles forth, mostly during a sub-plot that involves the hero's brother and the heroine's girlfriend. In contrast to the hasty marriage of the protagonists, this couple never quite gets around to having an affair, despite persistent efforts. But even this comic-relief interlude contains its solemn overtones; both supporting characters carry wounds that neither can successfully hide from the other...