Word: comical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sophokles' tragedy Aias doesn't have an all-male cast, as it did during its original run. But Aias isn't the Hasty Pudding show, I answer--although the overactors in this play rival the Pudding's in the way they exaggerate their characters to the point of comic caricature...
Leno would probably love the spinning song wheel, a towering and hokey trick that exercises an unhealthy fascination with Elvis. I've seen the damn thing three times now, and it's never been effective. It does provide a certain comic amusement for the first three minutes, but after that it bogs down the show as people have to be selected out of the audience to spin...
Almost the entire acting burden falls on the shoulders of Oleson, who carries the whole show Oleson displays an amazing sense of comic timing as well as an irresistible variety of goofy facial expressions. But Oleson's tour-de-force performance really takes off in the serious parts. He manages to make Arnolphe's psychosis accessible to the audience, creating sympathy and pulling off these serious scenes with a skill Robin and Jeff Rossman (who plays Horace, Agnes' lover) lack...
Since Oleson commands the stage with his tremendous stage presence, less is required of the supporting cast. Robin and Rossman have a strong sense of comic timing, but they don't fully convey the simple innocence and sincerity their characters possess. Only part of the problem lies in the translation which turns Moliere's verse into heroic couplets...
Peter Ocko and Jennifer Cool are both wonderfully comic as Arnolphe's hapless servants. The best, most balanced performance in the supporting cast is that of Linus Gelber as Chrysalde, Arnolphe's sage friend...