Word: lesses
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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King John addresses the disruptive effects of the tension between monarchy and the Catholic Church, and the pull of "Commodity" (convenience) against loyalty. Pearson aptly conveys this struggle and Isham provides striking and personable contrast. Unfortunately, unclear motivations in the supporting cast and unrevealing lines by Shakespeare leave a less entertaining second half...
UNDERGRADUATES LOVE to stage musical reviews. They require little scenery, characterization, or preparation. Singers like them because they offer solos enough even for the less-talented voices. Directors like them because they're easily transformed by adding and deleting numbers. Lazy audiences like them because there's no plot to follow, no psychological interplay to understand--only a leisurely ramble down musical garden-paths, on which the weary can close their eyes for intermittent stretches of time without missing much...
...both cast and audiences seem mildly intrigued by the subject. But the production has no pretense of saying something new and provocative about Brel, or in fact saying anything about him at all; and the sparse attendance at last Saturday night's performance ought to suggest that there's less than all-consuming interest in another musical revue, another bunch of songs, among student audiences...
...other men, Andy Sellon and Ben Schatz., have less ample vocal talents, but their songs are less demanding; too. If Sellon is a touch precious and self-conscious in "Fanette," a lengthy contemplation on alost love, he provides just the right sneer of disgust for the satire of the solider's lot in "Next...
Martha is the stongest character in the play and Shallo handles the part admirably. Often the role is tackled by full-figured actresses with talent less than proportional to their physical attributes. Happily, Shallo does not fit that mold. Rather than pigeon-hole Martha as an aging liquor-ridden seductress, Shallo adds depth to the character by emphasizing her sense of humor and her love of laughter. Martha would like to be happy, but she seems unable. It is this that makes her pathetic rather than ridiculous...