Word: insipids
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...show begins in a straightforward satiric vein, using the vehicle of a "Miss or Mr. American Talent" pageant to mock American commercialism and the competitive ethic. When the slimy, selfindulgent M.C. introduces the six stereotypical contestants, all familiarly insipid, we remain anchored in the comfortable world of parody. With the song "An Atypical American Family," however, parody is replaced by a rude inversion of values; to the music of "Mame," a brother who pulls wings off flies and a sister who carries a onearmed doll confess their mutual hatred in starkly unfunny terms. A similarly violent mood underlies "The Hard...
Unfortunately, much of this dialogue is insipid and cliched. Worse, Teichmann's attempts at character development partially distort West's intent. In the stage version, for example, the relationship between Miss Lonelyhearts and his sweetheart Betty--which assumes a far more central role than in the novel--is transformed into a typical 50s romance, while Shrike, Miss Lonelyhearts' misanthropic boss, becomes too intrusively a father figure. Worst of all are Teichmann's omissions. Absent from his script are many of West's most pungent passages; missing too are several key incidents which suggest that Miss Lonelyhearts' real impulse...
...middle-aged Faculty wives who ushered me through the waiting process all made valiant attempts to exude cheerfulness. Sporting blue smocks and name tags, smiling as wide as they could, and making insipid conversation ("How marvelous to remember your social security number!"), they all tried to make me feel as if I were sipping tea in their homes. But it just didn't work. They knew as well as I did that the purpose of my visit was not tea but blood. However, they were very considerate and did as much as they could to calm...
...depend on the Bud Collins's, Howard Cosells and David Frosts to dissect and dessicate it today, tomorrow and next week, into just so much printed copy, dead airtime, dry commentary, insipid television footage. They couldn't do justice to good stuff if Ali gave it to them every night...
Arnott, in order to squeeze the maximum wit out of Coward's insipid manuscript, has worked out what appears to be a second-by-second computer program for verbal inflections, facial contortions, physical maneuvers, and furniture kicking. During the extensive arguments and love bouts of Elyot and Amanda, the play's spirited and engaging cynics, the precise sense of timing turns insults, cigarette lighting, and record smashing into high comic art. At times, Arnott's exhaustive direction and his actors' slavish execution reaches self-parody: it is worthwhile, during the course of the play, to study carefully the director...