Word: mamma
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...forehead is low. Her mouth is too large. And, mamma mia, she is absolutely gorgeous...
...show stars Jo Van Fleet as the possessive Mamma of the title. Making her first entrance in an eccentric mourning outfit (beautifully designed, like all the others costumes, by Patricia Zipprodt), she looks for all the world like the Black Lady from a Charles Addams cartoon. She goes through the show in reliably firm control. And she has mastered the art of gesture, and of moving--whether it be simply walking or a waltz or a Latin American rump-shaker. Vocally, she is not yet a hundred per cent effective; but she gets a good deal out of her monumental...
...chief shortcoming of this production is the performance of Austin, Pendleton as mamma's boy Jonathan, the pivotal role. He is good enough not to spoil the script, but he does not get so close to the real Jonathan as did Rol Maxwell in the Cambridge production. Dressed in the white of innocence, Pendleton enters with a buck-teeth smile, horn-rimmed glasses, and short pants. This is all very well, but his demeanor does not convey the pent-up pressure that will later burst into deeds of violence. In this Jonathan's makeup there is too much Little Lord...
Miss Harris is cunning and vitality personified. Appearing for her big scene in a short pink dress and curls, she looks like the young Shirley Temple. Her ensuing seduction of Jonathan on Mamma's bed is as hilarious a scene as I can recall. And when Dad's corpse enters the proceedings, she uses his arm to punctuate her speech as nonchalantly is one would a fork or pencil at table...
...entire production is under the direction of Jerome Robbins, who has staged it fluidly. The night I attended, it was a bit slow to gather steam; but once it did, there was no flagging thereafter. He staged the waltz scene between Mamma and the Commodore with a knowing eye; and he introduced some fine touches such as having Mamma try to revive her per goldfish by artificial respiration...