Word: murgatroyds
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...Billy DeWolfe, 67, veteran stage and screen comedian who started out in show biz as a theater usher; of cancer; in Los Angeles. DeWolfe and his drooping mustache appeared in numerous vapid Hollywood comedies (the first: Dixie, in 1943) before hitting the big time with an impersonation of Mrs. Murgatroyd, a matronly tippler, in Blue Skies (1946) and later with a performance as a stuffy diplomat in Call Me Madam (1953). His successes on the stage included his role as J.B. Biggley in the London production and New York revival of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying...
...essence of the play; for they parody the mechanics of melodrama while they suggest often-embarrassing affinities between a figure's old pose and his new one. Of the male leads only Stuart Rubinow displays the emotional range necessary to do justice to the hectic script. His Sir Despard Murgatroyd is first exuberantly wicked as the bad baronet who pays for his sins by contributing to the Church. Several abrupt turns of the plot later and on the right side of the law, he is a flawlessly pompous rate-payer who has spared himself the need to repent his sins...
...complicated plot revolves around those old comic motifs, dissipation, insanity and betrayal. There are also ghosts. In the central role of Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, who disguises himself as a simple farmer to escape the curse on his family, tenor Jan Ewing gave an inspired performance. It may be that his humor lies a good deal in the direction of mugging, but it is muggery of a very high order indeed. As Dick Dauntless, his nautical foster brother, Peter Larson overcame a vague singing voice by the force of his agile personality. His first act hornpipe was a show stopper...
...real Ruddigore, only in disguise, you know). And Mr. A. Thompson, who plays Oakapple's foster brother, Richard Dauntless, makes the most of one of Gilbert's few comic lyric tenor roles, and achieves a creditable hornpipe. So too, does Mr. Edward Schmookler, the villainous Sir Despard Murgatroyd (Oak apple's real brother, if you get what I mean). Schmookler is got up to resemble Mr. Hyde, and he rubs his hands, rolls his eyes, and flashes his tooth to great effect. Despard's intended, Mad Margaret, also needs to be mentioned: as sung by Miss Tammy Miller, this wacky...
Arriving at Butlin's Filey Camp on the Yorkshire coast last fortnight with his wife Mary, their two children and some 400 other workers from the Midland's woolen-weaving city of Bradford, Alf Murgatroyd had little time to stand and wonder what next. Bustling all around him on the long, flat station platform was a group of bright young girls and athletic men in red blazers. Bursting with good cheer, they whisked Alf and his friends over green fields to a cluster of glass-sided buildings topped by a huge white tower bearing the word "Butlin...