Word: fuscaldo
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Luckily for the audience, Hilarion usually appears in the company of the courtiers Cyril (Arthur Fuscaldo) and Florian (Steven Mooradian). And unlike Hilarion, the two of them are hilarious. When the trio dress up in ruffled academic gowns and pose as women, merriment overflows. Cyril in particular is a joy to watch as he hops, skips and boozes his way around the castle. In Cyril's company, Lady Psyche (Lisa Harris) recovers from a lackluster entrance scene and provides her mate-to-be with amusing counterpoint...
...plot (surprise, surprise) revolves around the competition between a likable but apparently low-born shepherd Strephon (Arthur Fuscaldo), who happens to be a fairy from the waist up, and therefore immortal, yet insufficiently prestigious to vie with the rapacious royals for the fair Phyllis' (Laurie Myers) hand in marriage...
Although Gilbert was a bit skimpy on the lead roles, the players are very good. Marybeth Ahern sings a stunning Iolanthe, Arthur Fuscaldo is an endearing and appropriately cute Strephon, and Laurie Myers carries a charmingly coquettish Phyllis with just enough sexual verve to justify the Peers' lascivious looks...
Nose clearly owes a lot to the Russian folk tale tradition of the nebuival'shchina, or humorous tall tale. Duffy takes advantage of the story's fairy-tale quality and frames his adaptation around the premise of a group of adults (Arthur Fuscaldo, Lee Thomsen and Maria Troy) performing the tale to pacify a difficult little girl (Annie Gustavsen) who has locked herself in a basement room, Happily, this device manages not to cross the boundary from charm to terminal cuteness, and while you may occasionally feel like a little malchik being tucked into bed by your babushka...
...three hours the audience's interest in the story of an embittered, vengeful killer whose philosophy is "we all deserve to die." But if such a character can be engaging, then Tolins' Sweeney is engaging. Edwards' Mrs. Lovett is hilarious, as are Johnson's lascivious, foppish beadle and Arthur Fuscaldo's Pirelli, a mountebank rival barber. Wolman's judge is surprisingly sympathetic, and Michael Starr is strong as Tobias, Mrs. Lovett's fiercely devoted young shill...