Word: ganges
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Australia's outlaw motorcycle gangs used to have a code by which they prosecuted their bloody turf wars and avoided publicity about their criminal activities: not at home, not at work and not in front of women or children. But on March 22, in the terminal of one of Australia's busiest airports, two of the gangs rewrote the code in blood when one gang member was bashed to death in front of horrified bystanders, women and children included...
...Given the GOP opposition, support from a group of moderate Democrats known as the Gang of 16 (led by Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana) is essential. Although most insisted that Obama's presence on Capitol Hill was not a sales job, the luncheon was dominated by talk of his budget. "These initiatives - education, better health care - are not free," said Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, who asked Obama about a provision she strongly opposes that would raise taxes on independent oil and gas producers. "But he was very open to consider some of those changes, which is what...
...this new production, directed by Arthur Laurents - author of the original book and now 91 years old - the story is what seems least compelling. Partly this is due to the competent but bland cast. As Tony, leader of the Anglo gang the Jets, Matt Cavenaugh is an attractive, sweet-voiced Broadway leading man, but he doesn't look like he could survive a game of touch football, must less a gang rumble. As Maria, the virginal Puerto Rican girl he falls for, newcomer Josefina Scaglione has a lovely voice and good energy but seems to be acting by the numbers...
...some of the fault, I think, lies in the original script, which might be hefty enough for a sung-through opera but here seems too thin to live up to its ambitions. I don't expect a stage musical about street gangs to have the grit or nuance of the better Hollywood films of the same era, like Blackboard Jungle or Rebel Without a Cause (though a cast of gang members who didn't look like they stepped out of a Chorus Line audition might help). But I do want a love story with at least a hint of conviction...
...tossed in to keep the Anglo customers from drifting off in confusion, and I, for one, do not miss the English lyrics to "I Feel Pretty." Still, it seems like a gimmick: "realism" in a genre that depends on stylization for its very existence. This is a show where gang members do ballet leaps in the streets, for gosh sakes...