Word: mostel
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...York City Ballet star who moves gloriously but whose facial expression seems limited to a scowl and a simpering grin. Jason Alexander, who serves as narrator and plays seven characters, has wit, charm and the requisite razzmatazz -- his parts in Forum and Fiddler were played by Zero Mostel -- but lacks the star attribute of effortless ease. Yet if Robbins has not unearthed the treasure trove that many hoped for, he still offers a richly illuminated manuscript from the book of Broadway's beloved past...
...tomer wants his sandwich on rye toast, the waiter hollers "whiskey down." A pistol "dressed" indicates that Russian dressing is to be used, and anyone discovered eating pastrami that way in a New York delicatessen can expect to earn the sort of insult the late Zero Mostel is said to have hurled when he heard such a concoction being ordered. As the legend goes, the great comic stood up in the jam-packed room, pointed a finger at the offender and screamed, "Get out of this restaurant!" Which shows how seriously Americans take their almost-taken-for-granted favorite...
Harvard calendar tradition has struck again. Last year, seemingly more worshipful of tradition than even Zero Mostel, the University simply could not uproot Commencement from the 38th Thursday to accomodate its conflict with a Jewish religious holiday. Move Commencement? Start the year earlier to afford a longer Reading Period? Would such radicalism really send John Harvard's statue racing around the Yard...
Relying on personal experience, Sabath adds that he purposely steered his portrayal of Tevye away from Zero Mostel's acclaimed rendition of the character. "I think that Mostel perhaps did a little too much comedy with Tevye. He played him too much like a clown so that the audience was laughing at him rather than with him. I try to play the character with a little more pathos...
...witness to Don Juan's exploits, and a teeming flagon of comic relief, is his servant Sganarelle (Roy Brocksmith). He makes cowardice an art form. Brocksmith has some of the elephantine grace of Zero Mostel. Seitz's Don Juan is a triumph of stylized scorn. He scuttles about the stage crab-fashion. He gazes into a mirror as if to blot out the scum of the earth. Even in wooing, he masks any show of passion. He is, for certain, a radical Don Juan...