Word: cutup
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...performers dig beneath this mannerism to suggest years of buried sorrow. Nancy Marchand, as the family's self-described cutup, has the gift of making banal observations sound witty. Anne Pitoniak, as the eldest and prissiest, combines dictatorial will with genuine dignity. Peggy Cass is the family entertainer, Elizabeth Franz its happiest housewife and Gisela Caldwell its edgy protofeminist, whose eventual crack-up seems to result from her discontent with women's lot. The most affecting performance comes from Bette Henritze, as a stroke victim whose singsong speech does not obscure a larger tragedy. When she admits...
...moods, the writers for NBC's original Saturday Night Live might have used these facts to make a satiric point about the self-destruction of performers who spoke most electrifyingly to their generation. And at the end of the skit, the victim-played by SNL 's reigning cutup, John Belushi-would have sprung back to life, bounced to his feet and bellowed: "But no-o-o-o!" But yes. Late last week, in a bungalow of West Hollywood's Hotel Chateau Marmont, Belushi-the Blues Brother, the raging bull of Animal House, the samurai comic of cabaret...