Word: kismet
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Aleksandr Borodin's first musical since Prince Igor hit the boards in 1890 is an entertaining show, in spite of some remarkably shoddy ingredients. Unlike Igor, Kismet's big assist comes from Minsky rather than Rimsky. With the vigorous cootch dance that shocked Elinor Hughes on opening night, bare-tummied slave girls paraded "for sale or for rent," and a number of jokes like, "Call me in the harem; I'll be lying down there," Kismet is often indistinguishable from Harem Nights at the Old Howard. Further debits are abominable lyrics ("We'll coo adicu without undue ado"), a script...
What raises Kismet above the standard of an old Maria Montez movie are the engaging performances of a cast which refuses to take any of the show's claptrap seriously. Well-rehearsed after a West Coast run of two months, the company gambols through Kismet with good-natured case. Even the gauze-pantalooned houris in the chorus seem pleasantly aware of how silly they look and make the bad moments of the show so hilariously poor that you can't complain. On the other hand, thanks primarily to Alfred Drake, Kismet's good moments are very enjoyable indeed. In Otis...
...Portugal, such an injuction in the middle of a love song is as standard as June & moon rhymes in the U.S. Fado (pronounced fah-doo), distantly related to kismet, means fate or destiny, and turns up in general conversation as often as "good luck" does...
...that the impresario uses her as a regular decoy to line up human steak platters. Between catastrophes, H. Hatterr asks himself the perennial questions of philosophy, some piffling, some reaching toward profundity: "Why is an evening paper published in the afternoon?" "Is there anything in this here 'Kismet' notion? If Destiny should commit a feller to the wrong woman, can anything prevent it happening...
...rush of refugees. Most of the intended immigrants had been forced to get rid of their land, cattle and shelter; they would die unless allowed to get out. A high-ranking Turk said bitterly: "A few years ago the Erzincan earthquake caused the death of many thousands. It was Kismet and we bowed to it. This today is not Kismet. This is a premeditated disaster sent by the devil in human form...