Word: lavishness
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...lavish gambling clubs and boudoirs as well as the theater, the story centers around Marguerite Gautier, a beautiful courtesan who finances her taste for pretty ballgowns and daily bouquets of camilles through the sizable wealth of her various lovers. Her life consists of soirees with her amusing entourage of friends and a string of liaisons. Occupying the heart of the movie is a love triangle between Marguerite, the wealthy Baron de Varville, compellingly played by Henry Daniell, and the less affluent Armand Duval, portrayed by the dashing Mr. Taylor...
...acts suffer from the lavish production. The most unnecessary element of the show is singer Francine Poitras, who's been outfitted in a sort of bathrobe, dangly earrings and a headdress that looks like a shiny pineapple. Although a decent singer, her presence serves mostly to distract; warbling onstage as the excellent tightrope artist Sun Hongli braves death above her, Poitras effectively dilutes the drama of the number. Something similar happens during the "elastic ballet," an act resembling the trapeze, in which acrobats dangle from elastic strips and bounce about prettily. Although the spectacle is visually interesting, it's hard...
...once promised to make it black Africa's first world power. Decades of misrule by the military has wrecked the country, which is sliding into the worst crisis since the civil war of the 1960s claimed 1 million lives. Much of the nation's wealth has been squandered through lavish government spending whose main effect is to create new opportunities for kickbacks. Food has grown so expensive that even a university lecturer who earns 10 times the average annual wage of $219 says his children have forgotten how meat tastes. Though Nigeria is the world's 10th largest oil exporter...
...Beast, has now unveiled a touring stage revue of songs from its animated movies. The show opened a two-week run last week at Manhattan's Metropolitan Opera House, no less, and will go on to play 17 amphitheaters, arts centers and state fairs through Aug. 22. A lavish affair, it is performed by a symphony orchestra, a 30-member chorus, and 44 players who impersonate more than 200 Disney characters. Alas, the title -- Disney's Symphonic Fantasy -- is only two-thirds accurate...
...with gays' virtual invisibility on the small screen. Hollywood movies afford scarcely more notice. Yet in the theater, long a haven for gay artists provided they addressed straight topics, gay characters and stories have abruptly taken center stage. After decades on the fringe, gay-themed works are increasingly enjoying lavish Broadway productions and being embraced by mainstream heterosexuals. "The trend really peaked this year," says John Harris, editor of TheaterWeek. "All the hot properties seem...