Word: comic
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Soon enough, through some incoherent bit of comic book magic, Constance is sucked through her trashcan into the world of Othello, just as Iago is about to play his fatal trick and convince the Moor to murder his wife, Desdemona. Constance exposes the deception and goes on to become Othello's favorite and Desdemona's best friend. She learns, as she had long suspected, that the "real" Desdemona is no fainting flower; rather, she yearns for a life of combat, such as she assumes Constance must enjoy in the Kingdom of Academe...
...Mercutio and Desdemona. It is tempting to imagine them as Viola and Malvolio or Beatrice and Benedick in some future HRDC production. Barth is wonderfully vicious as Iago, and his Romeo, while predictably over-the-top, retains more grace and wit than the buffoonish comedy demands Smith's comic zeal and exuberance make her the focus of every scene she is in; her Mercutio is delightful, and her Desdemona is as perfect a performance of that sadly banal role as could be imagined...
...joined by an extremely large cast of Cabotians, led by Amy Dahlberg as Sarah Brown and Joel Kurtzberg as Sky Masterson. While the romantic leads sing with determined earnestness, their roles do not provide the comic latitude that some of the smaller parts allow. Benjamin Toro, as the fast-talking Nathan Detroit and Karen Hartshorn as Miss Adelaide, his fiancee of fourteen years, are blessed with much juicier material...
...that's just the beginning of the comic confusion. For his family, clustered around his bedside, get the impression that she's his fianca and, being nice, warm people, take her into their circle. She doesn't have the heart to tell them the truth: that she's just a girl who works in a change booth on the Chicago El who never had the gumption to speak to him when he bought his tokens from her every morning. Luckily, the family harbors an authentic prince, Peter's brother Jack (Bill Pullman), whose initial suspicion of Lucy is, of course...
...coincidence, even the odd pratfall are all judiciously permitted--it's really a grownup form. It needs smart dialogue and plausibly eccentric characters (Michael Rispoli contributes a beaut to this one, as an inappropriate suitor to Lucy, and such worthy veterans as Jack Warden and Glynis Johns give good comic weight too). Above all, it requires honorable sentiment--not to be confused with dishonest sentimentality...