Word: one-acts
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This is the premise for "Hoorah for Kelsey," one of two one-act plays that make up The War Years, appearing in the Kronauer Space of Adams House this weekend only. Directed by Laurence Thomsen and produced by Sean O'Brien, the production makes optimal use of a subterranean crypt that only the hippest theater artiste could consider a legitimate stage...
...actually keeps down a whole can of beer pounded in five seconds flat on stage. This after half a case of beer has already been consumed by the cast of six. Sure, it's not much of a feat for a Friday night, but these guys still have another one-act to go. Kudos...
Another playwright Brustein would not touch with a 20-foot curtain rod is Clifford Odets, author of the Huntington's latest offering, Awake and Sing. Odets was one of the most prominent American playwrights of the 1930s, working with the Group Theater, the idealistic, left-wing venture that helped bring the modern theater to the United States. Odets first hit the big time with his Socialist one-act, Waiting for Lefty, which supposedly had audiences on their feet, yelling "Strike! Strike...
BERNSTEIN: Candide Overture; Facsimile Ballet; Fancy Free Ballet; On the Town (Three Dance Episodes). Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (Angel). Far cheerier is this disk of Bernstein excerpts. Whatever one thinks about the musical-comedy-turned -opera itself, the raucous overture to Candide remains one of its composer's most vibrant creations. The gotta- dance high spirits of the one-act ballet Fancy Free, later transformed and expanded into the Broadway show On the Town, are just as irresistible. Was this perhaps Bernstein's true calling? Lenny conducts Lenny, and both are at their best...
...Commentators do less well with their material but that perhaps is a fault inherent in the play. In any case, a host of other elements join together to make this one-act play a brisk, satisfying show. Szanton's sensitive direction, Friel's delightfully natural dialogue, and the nuanced lead performances compensate for an often unnerving dramatic structure...