Word: fop
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...Chilly Fop. "Having had all," a friend said of him late in life, "he sees that he has lost all." His only recourse was to have it all again vicariously, by writing his memoirs. This twelve-volume work made Casanova a classic instead of a footnote, for even in its most suspect and self-serving pages, the 18th century throbs with life and color...
Bloomfield's failure lies in his decision to differentiate too sharply between the two ladies and the two gentlemen. Jon Goerner's Algernon--the best performance among the four leads--is a blatantly effeminate fop whose satirical jabs make him seem downright nasty. Davis Goodman's Jack, on the other hand, appears rather put upon, no better than a straight man to Algernon's wit. Goodman makes the balance still more unequal by his inability to vary sufficiently his intonations and break our of the sing-song which mars his delivery...
...Suckers. Two of the mayor's more idiotic henchmen report they have discovered the government inspector, Ivan Alexandrovich Khlyestakov (Austin Pendleton), living incognito in a local hotel. This chap is actually an impecunious government clerk from St. Petersburg, but once he appears, sycophancy reigns supreme. Khlyestakov is a fop with the instincts of P.T. Barnum. He rooks the local suckers of all their ready cash, comes close to seducing the mayor's wife (Sloane Shelton) and daughter (Erin Ozker) and then blows town. Like the tolling of the bell of doom, a resplendent attaché arrives from Moscow...
Laid bare, the plot itself could close the play fast. An aging and broke London fop, Sir Harcourt Courtly, plans to marry a country miss, Grace Harkaway, for her money. But before he can get Grace to the altar, his dashing and disobedient son Charles falls in love with her. He arranges to draw off Sir Harcourt with a fresh scent, the county's hardest rider to hounds, Lady Gay Spanker. Naturally the proceedings are hampered by a covey of long-winded subplotters, plus every other known theatrical device, all of which Eyre has the gall to retain only...
Wycherley made even his minor characters convincing and more than mere dramatic foils, but Turner's producation rarely allows them anything but sheer entertainment value. At this, however, they are superb, and David Natzler as Novel, "a pert railing fop and admirer of novelties" carries on his own one-man show...