Word: comics
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...fighting took place around Lang Son, a provincial capital twelve miles south of Friendship Pass on Highway 1 leading to Hanoi. The Chinese claimed the city's capture during their initial drive; the Vietnamese never conceded it. More likely, the blitzed city belonged to neither. One almost comic-opera theory was that at some point a Chinese unit had rushed in just long enough to hoist a flag, then hurried out again to avoid entrapment by Vietnamese in the surrounding hills...
Some of the chintziness achieves its intended comic proportions. The evil priestess ties our heroes to stakes, threatening them with sacrifice to vicious alligators. But small, adorably wiggly plastic things are tossed out on stage, and for once Sellon doesn't ruin it for himself and us--the actors respond as though these are, indeed, vicious creatures. If this attitude had prevailed, Thebes Like Us might have been the enjoyably silly evening...
Strauss built his operetta around the flimsiest of comic opera conventions, but it's loved nonetheless for its infectious waltzes. No matter what performers do to this durable music, it will intoxicate listeners. Lowell's Fledermaus refuses to take Strauss's joie-devivre seriously--which is no sin in itself--but director J. Scott Brumit fails to provide a substitute, leaving the show to wander in a wasteland of farce, sarcasm, and tastelessness...
...Serva Padrova--comic opera, St. Stephen's Church, North End, Boston...
...writing good comedy is knowing when to stop. One obvious pun that makes the audience hiss may be entertaining; two or three or even four may not. One comic gesture may go over well, but a whole chorus line full makes you turn away. Somewhere in the forest of one-liners, most importantly, there's got to be a story that makes the audience eager to know what happens next. But nobody bothered to tell Andy Borowitz, author and lyricist of No Net, about overkill...