Word: nabatoff
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...scene changes that frequently finish well ahead of the ovations for a previous scene's show-stopper. Andrew Dorsey's lighting is extremely well-defined, further illuminating the depth of director Carpenter's compositions, and someone handles the moving spotlight very adeptly. Little flourishes spice the proceedings; when Diane Nabatoff mounts the stairs to a perch on the top deck while singing "I Get A Kick Out of You," the spotlight catches the side of the Dunster Dining Hall chandelier, casting its shadow on the piece of set below her. Intentional? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing is clear...
Once again, no stand-outs in the cast: everyone shines so brightly that when they merge, it's blinding. Diane Nabatoff has a voice that cuts through the air like a siren until it laps lullingly against your ear. Her Reno Sweeny has that extra dimension of depth that you find in the best torch singers--mature, at times slightly removed, a little scared of aging, but always supremely poised. Brick Bushman's engaging Billy never lets the character become plastic, and as his beloved, Ellen Burkhardt is a wonderfully pert ingenue, an island of sanity at sea. Kevin Usher...
There are fleeting flaws, inevitably, but it'd be grouchy to make much of them; when a director is so clearly a perfectionist, a critic can afford, for a little while anyway, to relax. Nabatoff and Bushman could sing "You're The Top" to each other instead of the audience; a few funny lines were buried in the laughter on opening night and some of the supporting players might raise their volume a little; during the second act, someone says Moon is locked in the brig, after he has clearly participated in the previous production number--oh hell, enough...
Produced by Diane Nabatoff '78 and Peter Lombard...
...grandee and his wife, known as the Duke and Duchess of Plaza-Toro, initially appear two dimensional but that's because they float across stage on a gondola bearing a resemblance of sorts to Washington Crossing the Delaware. But nothing is flat about David S. Brown's and Diane Nabatoff's performances. Nabatoff manages to look both pinched and bombastic simultaneously. Uppercrustedly on the bourgeois make, Brown has the perfect Hogarthian face for the role: his oblivious facial reactions to his own spectacular antics make him all the funnier. With Brown as the Duke of Plaza-Toro...