Word: kaufmans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...SUPPOSED to hold a mirror to nature, but when a play sets actors portraying actors, the theater can turn into a house of mirrors. Resonances and multiple entendres give performers a chance to show off and audiences the opportunity to smile knowingly. George Kaufman and Edna Ferber's durable comedy doesn't make too much of this complexity, not nearly as much as some other plays in the genre, like David Mamet's A Life in the Theater. The Royal Family sticks closely to the bustling, three-act comedy formula that Kaufman and his collaborators used in so many...
...Family's multiple mirrors and just present it as a straightforward domestic comedy with Broadway trappings--as, with the exception of a couple of entrances, the Loeb production does--then the problem evaporates. This approach loses some of the subtlety of the play-about-actors, but then, a George Kaufman comedy hardly demands subtle treatment. Modest ambitions save the Loeb's Royal Family from becoming a grandiose statement about "the theatre" and salvage an evening's entertainment out of the alluring labyrinth of mirrors...
...course, The Royal Family moments of emotional excess aren't its best, and the Loeb cast is strong precisely where the script is strong: situational comedy. The first act drags a bit, but both second and third build to those frenzied, crowded scenes into which Kaufman is always tossing one more character. Both Cantor and Sam Samuels as Wolfe, the family's agent, have a knack for comic timing, and Wilber drops off-hand insults like time-bombs. Jeffrey Horwitz and Mario Aieta, as the men in the actress's lives who are forever barred from understanding their calling, receive...
...unable to gather basic information on dumpsites, sample hazardous materials, or even follow elementary safety precautions; several staff members were injured and hospitalized because of poor sampling methods. To make matters worse, "material documenting hazardous conditions at waste facilities have been sitting in files for years," says branch chief Kaufman. "It would look very bad for these officials if they came to light now," he adds...
...misdeeds, fortunately, may not go completely unchecked. Assistant Administrator Jorling, whom both Kaufman and Sanjour have targeted for many of the agency's "illegal" policies, resigned in September after congressional hearings showed that he had condoned, if not ordered, the sudden cutbacks on EPA enforcement. His successor, Christopher Beck, "certainly talks like he's aggressive," says EPA official Steven Caldwell, who adds, "He has a good reputation for being an action-oriented, go-getter type...