Word: loeb
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...street, you know. The cult guys are still around, sure. But they're all into it now, too. It's got the makings of an international conspiracy. It's the lowest musical common denominator since the bongo drum; Sonny and Cher, Hall and Oates, Stiller and Meara, Leopold and Loeb, local starving artists in the street, they're all into it. Hendrix and Joplin are releasing posthumous albums of it. Disco. May the Good Lord take me, take us all, to the great Disco in the sky. The dam has burst, and vapidity in three-quarter time now envelopes...
Your next best theatrical value is probably the Loeb Ex, mainly because it's free. You don't even have to trek all the way up to the Loeb the day before (as the ads suggest) to get tickets. Just get there half an hour before curtain, and stand in line. The Ex is so small that any seat is bound to be good...
While Ex productions naturally vary in quality, they're often surprisingly good. Mainstage productions, on the other hand, are often surprisingly bad, not to mention more costly. It's hard to say why this is. Over the years the Loeb has gained a reputation for both technical virtuosity and lacklaster performances. Sometimes the problem has lain with the plays themselves. The Harvard Dramatic Club has usually tried to shy away from scheduling already overproduced works. A commendable policy, this, but one which has resulted in the past in the production of such gems as More Stately Mansions, probably the worst...
...should give the Loeb a chance, however. Each year the Loeb ropes in at least one professional director, and not all of them are incomprehensible. A production two years ago of Sheridan's The Rivals was marvellously funny, its acting near-professional in caliber. And Black CAST, which generally gets one slot each year, can be depended on for an energetic production...
This fall's Loeb schedule looks promising: George Bernard Shaw's Candida coming up in late October, and Scapino, an adaptation of a play by Molier, and Oklahoma!, directed by Andy Cadiff, who has been trying for years to make the corny musical into an art form...