Word: comical
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...with surprisingly successful results. None of the original five parts is wholly dispensed with; and the eight acts have been compressed into six scenes. Moss has rightly stuck to the main theme of the work. He has pared away the lengthy digressions and the superfluous characters (such as the comic takeoffs on the British statesmen Asquith and Lloyd George...
...chief virtue of the production is a cast of exceptionally high-quality voices which is agreeably suited to comic opera. Unfortunately, the acting is not always so successful, at least it is not up to the calibre of the singing. In the title roles of the two primi gondolieri and pretenders to the throne of Barataria, Bruce Macdonald and George Brown both sing remarkably well and elicit a great deal of satire from their acting. Neither of the pair strikes one as of the gondoliering or the regal type, but this only serves to heighten the humor...
...attendant, Alison Keith as the pompous Duchess, and Marjory Harper as the daughter, later Queen of Barataria. Waldstein is nothing short of hilarious as the somewhat down-at-the-heels Duke. Alison Keith, who is well-known to Cambridge audiences, is an excellent actress who possesses a fine comic opera voice. John Bernard has an extremely able voice and he appeared quite natural in his role as drummer-boy, later King of Barataria. As his beloved, Marjory Harper carries off her imperious airs very well, but she appeared somewhat stiff in her love scenes...
...comic-book titles, songs and sayings are culled from some 30,000 stumpers mailed in each week by viewers who hope to win a TV set by baffling one of the teams. Five readers on the West Coast reduce this flood to a trickle of the 100 best, an assistant producer in Manhattan thins it to 50, and Stokey selects the best eight of these. A great many of the stumpers sent in have already been used or seem too easy. The most frequently submitted gag line is "Head for the roundhouse, Nellie, the brakeman can't corner...
There are comic scenes that approach the .best in Sean O'Casey, as when a shrewd old lag with a game leg solicits a massage from a warder in order to get drunk on rubbing alcohol. "Which leg is it?" asks the warder. "To be on the safe side," says Convict Dunlavin, "you'd have to do two of them. It's only the mercy of God I'm not a centipede, sir ... Ah, that's massive, sir. 'Tis you that has the healing hand." The warder turns, and Dunlavin sneaks a great swig...