Word: distracts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Aster, composer and librettist have made the character of the Confidence Man (Baritone Brent Ellis) into a supporting player. Whenever they include other episodes from the novel-principally a scene in which the Confidence Man bilks a barber out of a shave by appealing to his trust-they needlessly distract attention from the main drama. The story of China Aster is not enough; the full story of the Confidence Man would be too much...
...most interesting of the eight lovers in Berowne, the naysayer who winds up narrating a good deal of the young men's transitions from games to reality. Max Cantor, whose forte seems to be bringing believable emotion to stylized and ultra-verbose lines, uses physical cavorting not to distract the audience, but to jog the attention span every couple of paragraphs. And despite the length of his speeches, the ongoing struggle that structures the lines--the attempt to find true emotions among his fiends posturings--creates a clearly defined character, allowing Cantor to mold an actual stage presence...
...five hours, this version must have undergone judicious cutting, changes are, it could without bleeding take a good deal more. But the pervasive freedom from fuss enlivens the script's excesses simply by showcasing them. The bare black stage, with two garden swings intelligently breaking the monotony, does not distract; neither do Martha Eddison's very effective costumes, for the most part just baggy bright smocks with cumberbunds for the nobility, or the occasional sharp-edged modern choreography...
WHEN AN INTRUDER sneaks into Queen Elizabeth's bedroom in Buckingham Palace and holds the monarch at bay for 15 minutes with a broken glass ashtray, nothing the United States could do--short of attacking the Cliffs of Dover--would distract the British people from their chagrin and outrage...
There was no T. V. to distract us, no nuclear arrangements to worry about and Prohibition to keep us soberly at work. (I did take a course in atomic physics that seems very out-of-date as I look back on it, but seemed exciting at the time.) The yearbooks remind its of how we looked in those days, but I am more interested in what we thought and felt like. What was our would view? Did we have one? It took 10 days to get to Europe, so we may be excused for being nationalist in outlook...