Word: deftly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...from the mid-1930s until his death in 1984, at age 79, were among the best in jazz history. Not that Basie makes any such claims in Good Morning Blues. On the page as in life, he is a modest man, given to understatement and sly humor, deft in turning the spotlight on others. He fondly evokes such colleagues as Thomas ("Fats") Waller and Lester Young, and he has a nice eye for after-hours vignettes. With the artful help of Collaborator Albert Murray (Stomping the Blues), he turns his early memories into a historically valuable account of the itinerant...
...which, Blood Knot, closes this week--and there you have it: the total of non- musical survivors on the Great Gray Way. Why, then, does New York City seem abuzz with theatrical vitality? In large part because Off Broadway is providing a satisfying mix of star turns, ensemble work, deft new writing and apt revivals. Operating in smaller spaces, under less daunting financial pressures, off-Broadway's mostly nonprofit companies have mounted half a dozen recent shows demonstrating artistry and elan...
...romantic skirmishes and perpetual pitched battles with the censors involved in getting the show launched. Michaels, his cast and his writers saw themselves as comedic fifth columnists at NBC. The network executives, of course, mostly thought the players were crazy--until they caught on big. Hill and Weingrad are deft at dealing with all the infighting, as well as describing what the creative action was like inside MiG alley. They also benefit from a cast of characters that comes predrawn in broad outlines, like so many figures in a crazy coloring book. But the shading added by the authors...
...they take on what one suspects will be an infinite life in memory because of their awkward singularity. Jackson and Kingsley are great somber comedians under John Irvin's quietly assured, tactfully ironic direction. Amazing how the unspoken can resonate, astonishing how much can be implied with a small, deft gesture. It may be that Turtle Diary is advancing a radical proposition: good can arise as an unintended consequence of self-absorption as readily as it can from more overt efforts to improve the world...
With some deft behind-the-scenes bargaining, most of the problems were settled by early last week. Unresolved until the event actually took place was U.S. and West German determination that the release of Shcharansky be physically separated, by at least a short interval, from the spy exchange at the bridge. At a few minutes before 11 last Tuesday morning, the diminutive figure in fur hat and baggy clothing emerged from behind two vans parked at the middle of the bridge. "No Wall!" Shcharansky shouted to bystanders with a smile as he strode across the 4-in.-wide line...