Word: newley
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...Roar of the Greasepaint-the Smell of the Crowd brings back Anthony Newley, the versatile book-song-mime-and-dance man of Stop the World, to belabor his favorite subject -what a raw deal the Little Man gets in this worst of all possible worlds. This time, Newley's ubiquitous underdog is called Cocky instead of Littlechap, though the aptest name for him would be Poppycocky...
Under a pretentiously artsy façade, Newley slams the audience with a symbol as if it were a clown's pig bladder. Cocky is pitted against an autocratic upper-class fat cat in a dented top hat named Sir (Cyril Ritchard). Sir makes the rules for the Game of Life, which is played rather like circular hopscotch on a huge disk at stage center. Any time Cocky manages two jumps forward, he is forced to go three jumps or more backward. Arbitrary? Unreasonable? One understands-the game is hopelessly rigged...
...Newley's cry, clown, cry songs provide errant moments of appeal, most notably a tuneful lament called Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me). A floppy band of little girls clad like the urchins in Oliver! scamper about the ramplike setting to create illusions of dance numbers. One grownup girl (Joyce Jillson) lusciously blessed with beauty distracts the playgoer briefly from the show's glacial pace and Sir's ultimate comedownance...
...Price is a featured performer in Roar of the Grcasepaint--Smell of the Crowd, the new Anthony Newley musical currently on tour in a pre-Broadway tune-up. The Variety reviewer singled out Price's "lusty, full-voiced" singing of "Feeling Good" as the production's "real musical click." That's Price's only song, but it indicates well a little of what...
...come to land the role in Roar? He auditioned like everybody else. Anthony Newley, the British creator and director and star of the show, said, "He's too young for the part and he's too short for the part." Why, then, was he cast? Newley had the right answer: "All he's got is the greatest bloody voice I've ever heard...