Word: marvinism
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...principals evaluated, none received an unsatisfactory rating--despite the abysmal performance of the schools. Two other documents rated the system's special-education-department heads and managers on a five-grade scale from E for unsatisfactory to A for superior. Despite continuing pressure from federal judge Marvin Garbis, to say nothing of the judge's contempt citation against former superintendent Walter Amprey, none of these officials was rated unsatisfactory. Far from it: 26 of the 37 department heads got superior ratings. Forty-three of 58 managers did equally well...
...same breezy style that brightens his classroom lectures. He likes to quote Mae West ("Men like women with a past because they hope history will repeat itself") and Woody Allen ("I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics"), along with linguist Noam Chomsky, artificial-intelligence guru Marvin Minsky and, of course, Charles Darwin. Pinker has a showman's sense for knowing "when to hold his reader's attention with an illustration or a joke," observed University of Oxford zoologist Mark Ridley in the New York Times Book Review last week. "No other science writer makes me laugh...
Jackson, whose breathtaking voice can bring the audience to tears, is possibly the most versatile performer in the cast. She switches gears from Marvin's innocent and hesitant fiancee to his shattered yet infuriated wife with ease, grace and flawless dancing. Barker has a little more difficulty keeping up with the dance numbers, but her vocal performance is solid and her emoting keeps the audience involved. Sheflin, with a voice both powerful and haunting, also performs wonderfully behind somewhat-bizarre sunglasses...
...entire production. With only four players, some of the more upbeat songs become hysterical feasts of scandalous lyrics and perfectly-timed traditional (and not-so-traditional) Broadway dancing. Flanked by melancholy pieces about lost love, the spicier songs add amazing comic relief: the saucy maids and an aggressive adolescent Marvin who sing about making breakfast, the horny high-school girls tempting Marvin at the bus stop and the fabulously raucous number dedicated to Marvin's first gay sexual experience all leave the audience roaring with laughter. Few musicals could line up an estranged wife trying to deal with her heartache...
...simple black dresses that Jackson, Barker and Sheflin don for the majority of the play both distinguish them from one another (Jackson's is elegant, Barker's sultry and Shetlin's matronly) and unify them (they are all women who have loved and been hurt by the confused Marvin). In addition, the lighting crew helps illuminate (no pun intended) the myriad of moods the production calls...