Word: lyrically
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Within the span of two brief seasons, Chicago's Lyric Theater, a nonprofit corporation organized to present grand opera, managed to restore much of the splendor and prestige of the old days of Mary Garden and Samuel Insull. Night after winter night, the huge Civic Opera House was sibilant with mink and sables while the stage vibrated under the temperaments of the highest-priced stars in the operatic firmament, e.g., Maria Meneghini Callas, Renata Tebaldi. Opera lovers began to think that the Lyric group might succeed where others had failed...
...Lyric Productions' choice of Hotel Universe as its final effort of a hopeful first season is unfortunate. Unless Philip Barrie's wisps of philosophy are staged either with a sense of humor or with a sense of dedicated oddness, they can drag tediously. Since the director and cast seem dreadfully sober as they face the first hour or so, the current production remains dead until the bright second half of its long only...
...play as a whole, however, is not so tense; in fact, it verges on tedium. Although Lyric makes a good effort, sadly, their results are not yet up to their ambitions...
...plot is almost non-existent, The Devil's Disciple is a tricky play to tackle: unless all the funny lines about George III, the British army, heroism and relatives are held together by the actors, Shaw's own attitude will be lost. What the play needs and what the Lyric Theatre production doesn't always give it, is careful timing to get the funny sayings across. Though the actors do well in the smaller scenes, the pace is harried enough in the group scenes that some of the wittier lines go by too fast. This weakens the performances...
Shaw's own attitude is close to Burgoyne's. This doesn't always come through in the Lyric Theatre's production which makes the humor often seem incidental. Directress Grace Tuttle has gotten some very entertaining seperate scenes however--especially in the last act--and these make the play good...