Word: downplay
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...shrewish portrayal of Lady Macbeth. Her performance was, as Mandel points out, exquisite, but she deserved far more praise than Mandel gave her. To eliminate Colapinto from Mandel's list of quality elements of the show, to attack his work as "poor judgment or sheer incompetence," and to downplay Bishop's excellence, is wrong. Mandel is welcome to her opinion, but the mean-spirited tone of the article was both unfair and unnecessary; the highlighted quotes and headlines only helped Mandel blame any and all problems with the show on Colapinto. Many who read the review were bothered...
...stress--or downplay--the ridiculousness of the melodramatic excesses, and perhaps place them in a contemporary context, this production frames the dramatic action with a rather broad poke at the modern media fascination with violence and sensationalism (a la Natural Born Killers). Viewers with weak stomachs have little to fear, however: the visual representation of the violence and bloodshed is quite restrained, consisting mainly of several sparing patches of blood and one remarkably fake-looking severed hand. Perhaps as an appeal to the spirit of Halloween, a lot of the physical pain the various characters inflict on each other takes...
People tend to downplay the government's faults because they are not directly affected by the persecution, Tong says...
...keys to the popularity of the loutish British rock band Oasis is that its members make no secret of the fact that they want to be popular. American rock acts, especially all those fading alternative ones, often try to downplay their success, complaining, apologizing and obfuscating all the way. But after you've performed on the Grammys, hired a team from Silicon Valley to set up a multicolor interactive Website, or gabbed about your new record with Regis and Kathie Lee, all the moaning about the trials and tribulations of fame comes across as disingenuous and disagreeable. In contrast, Oasis...
...dissent still divides the party even at the leadership level. The uprising fizzled last night after a small group of disgruntled Republicans met for less than 20 minutes without the company of the GOP leadership to voice their disenchantment with the Speaker. The poor showing led organizers to downplay the significance of the unrest. "I don't think the Speaker is in any trouble in any sense of the term trouble. This is politics," said Lindsey Graham, who organized the gripe session. John Kasich chimed in: "Do I believe there is some serious movement against Newt Gingrich? The answer...