Word: humorously
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Walter Slezak does incredibly much to bring life to The First Gentleman. He bursts through an unbalanced, unfocussed play with enough strength and humor to make any moment that he is on stage worthwhile. But he is only the star; unfortunately the play also owes something to its author...
...Need to Dream. In A Touch of the Poet, O'Neill explores the theme he used in The Iceman Cometh-a man needs to dream-but he laces the bitter, dialectic dialogue between Melody and his family with rollicking humor and blazing theatrics. Melody keeps a thoroughbred mare to bolster his pride, yet forces his daughter to work as a waitress. When he swaggers out to challenge a rich Yankee who has insulted his family, he is beaten into the dust by servants, and his dream world shatters. His daughter, who has ridiculed his false life, is horrified...
...point or another, Orpheus Descending achieves everything that Tennessee Williams does well and even does uniquely: whiplashing recrimination, harshly funny humor, the corrosive bite of evil, the shaking fingers of fright. Actress Maureen Stapleton has some extraordinary moments as the wife, Cliff Robertson some quietly effective ones as the guitar player. But, taken as a whole, the play fails, and for three reasons: a faultiness of structure, an obsessiveness of attitude, an empurpling theatricalism...
...less good, as lack of rehearsal meant the strings were out of tune. Much of the Stabat Mater is written for soloists: the two girls who sang the parts had agreeable voices, but not the faintest idea of how to breathe to support their tone. Luckily, the general good humor of Pergolesi's music plus some spirited choral singing saved the work from falling apart. Nonetheless, it was the impressive individual performances rather than a smooth combination that made the concert worth-while...
...also a remarkably delicate story of the ups and downs in the lives of Leander's two sons, who find that their gentle mother and vigorous father have not exactly prepared them for the world beyond St. Botolphs. Lastly, it is a book peppered with ribald good humor and peopled by some absurd zanies...