Word: greatness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...coming?" they will be a small, silent (or at least ignored) minority. As Christmas threatens from Tokyo to Toledo, Messiahs are busting out again all over the world. The work is being staged, illustrated with color slides, tinkled through by tiny orchestras, blasted over by huge ones, shouted by great singers and squeaked by small ones. In New York and San Francisco, people are paying to sight-read the choruses at "Messiah sing-ins," and at the White House, President Nixon heard a 30-minute sample. One way or another, Handel's Messiah these days is as omnipresent...
...positively blossomed with Sheridan Morley's new Coward biography, A Talent to Amuse. At London's Phoenix Theater, Princess Margaret and Tony joined everyone in singing "Happy Birthday." After which Richard Briers and Susannah York did the balcony scene from Private Lives (currently playing in Manhattan, amid great nostalgia and critical acclaim). Other Coward sketches and songs followed until, at 4 in the morning, the Chinese mask slipped once again. "Thank you all," said Coward, "for making this obviously the most moving theatrical moment of my life...
COWARD: Dear boy, I have had no great causes. Do I have to? I can't think of any offhand. If I did, they'd be very offhand. I wanted to write good plays, to grip as well as amuse...
...public personality that is built on this sense of style is Coward's one great creation, looming behind all his smaller ones and investing them with special effervescence. This is what John Osborne meant when he said that Coward "is his own invention and contribution to this century." This is what makes it idle to scan the man or his works for the "real" Noel Coward. The mask of supreme entertainer has become the man. With Coward's 70th birthday, the legend is sealed. As Carlyle said of the universe, we had best accept it-as gratefully...
Nevertheless, many retailers expect their gray Christmas to be followed by sluggish spring sales. Lawrence Goodman, a vice president of Korvette, offers a bit of cheer for the consumer: "There will be great buys in January" -when stores mark down the goods that they failed to sell before Christmas...