Word: katisha
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...female leads, the three little maids are endearing even within the limits of their parts. Patte Tuell (Yum-Yum) is coy and free of squelch, while Ellen Zachos' soprano is probably the show's best. Jacqueline Meily (Katisha) is a little below the rest of the cast, as she fails to belt out her ascerbic lines with the requisite spite...
These minor characters are not quite as pivotal or as interesting as in some other Gilbert and Sullivan operettas--there's nothing here to compare, for example, with the posturings of the Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe or Katisha's ravings in The Mikado--but they still offer marvelous opportunities for comic mugging. Scott Meadow turns in a sharply defined performance as Wilfred Shadbolt, the "assistant tormentor" who eventually wins Phoebe's hand (but not her heart). A typical Gilbert and Sullivan "light heavy," Meadow's Wilfred is too ridiculously self-important and gullible to be really threatening. Carol Flynn also...
Most of the cast fill their roles with 18th century gusto. Teresa Toulouse, for example, combines the vengefulness of Gilbert and Sullivan's jilted Katisha with the coarse bumptiousness of Eliza the Flower Girl in her characterization of Lucy Lockit, Polly Peachum's rival for the love of the unfaithful highwayman Macheath. Joanna Blum as Mrs. Peachum also plays her role to the hit. Unscrupulous and unmarried, she jerks around the stage, hands on hips, spitting out cynical asides to the audience...
...small orchestra plays with evident relish and generally does a good job. It overpowers the singers at times, but this seems to be the fault of the cast--even when they were given ample room by the orchestra, many singers fail to take advantage of it. Katisha (Marcia Ragonetti) had one of the best voices in the company, but she was miscast if she wasn't willing to put aside some of the beauty of her voice and simply bellow out her lines. And Yum-Yum (Deborah Shaw) was clearly inadequate in places--she sang sweetly, but without sufficient strength...
...Their Gifts Allot," perhaps the show's wittiest number. This was not the only bit of business that came off--the tableau effects during "The criminal cried" were excellent, and the ruffling and unruffling of large gold foil fans during "A More Humane Mikado" nearly stopped the show. And Katisha's new image as an angular, sympathetic giantess instead of a short, fat grouch worked well as one of the few departures from convention among the characterizations...