Word: frutkoff
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James Bundy, Maggi-Meg Reed, and Katharine Kean burst onstage in "Comedy Tonight," which immediately satisfies with its snappy lyrics and fast beat. The trio maintain professional distance from the audience, and, here again, director David Frutkoff's restraint preserves the professional atmosphere...
During "What is This Thing Called Love?" and David Frutkoff's rendition of Sondheim's more recent "Losing My Mind," After Hours becomes simply a musical recital. Nothing happens onstage, and the tunes lose the original meanings they conveyed as a part of the musicals McIntosh lifts them from. The women's solos work better. Kathy Teague's lively "Thou Swell" and Nancy Cotten's energetic "Nobody Makes a Pass at Me," with typically American lyrics and ideas, capture best the spirit of these musicals...
...scenes that shine especially, crackling with fast-paced hilarity and several fine performances: Daphne de Marneffe as the daffy yet sensitive Florence, Charles Mills as the meek, bewildered Brown, Randy Marshall as the meek, bewildered Brown, Randy Marshall as the less-than-Able seaman, and, best of all, David Frutkoff as the manipulative Harry. After some initial fumbling with lines, Frutkoff takes charge (as he should) and controls the comedy with exquisite timing. As Harry, he is neverill-intentioned, willing to take gullible George for a ride, but stopping when his delusion gets out of hand. Yet the irrepressible jokester...
THOSE DUMMIES play an important part in the scenes with Dogberry (Peter S. Miller) and Verges (David Frutkoff), the "mechanicals" or clowns of this comedy. As the town watch and constabulary they are the ones who unravel the intrigue by which Don John (here "the Prince") convinces Claudio of his beloved's infidelity. An adept at malapropism, Dogberry conducts hearings and gathers evidence with the aid of the manic Verges, who in Sellars' production runs from dummy to dummy both to interrogate and to respond...
Both Miller and Frutkoff are effective, the former in a huge chestplate that makes it virtually impossible for him to sit down. Sellars' direction of their scenes, too, seems more careful. He dims the lights to a ghostly blue and has his pianists play wild chase music for their detection of the plot against Hero...