Word: plays
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Seltzer has directed in addition to his other chores, and has not made a good job of it. Although he uses a bare stage, his production is spotted with stage-waits. These will certainly speed up as the run goes on, but even short blackouts make the play a pile of disparate scenes, instead of an unbroken continuity of swiftly-changing action. Mr. Seltzer's blocking has some odd lapses, and falls apart entirely at the end. These final scenes also expose most pitilessly the limitations of his actors, and the concluding Battle of Shrewsbury is the soggiest and most...
...Henry IV has its inalienable glories, which frequently light up the Adams House production even when the Fat Knight is offstage. But while these have been and will be available elsewhere, there is no telling whether Mr. Seltzer will ever play Falstaff again after next Tuesday. Miss him at your own risk...
...novel by Pierre Louys, is an incoherent and frequently boring farce, moving from one extended gag to the next within a ridiculous plot. The pre-occupation with sex makes even the usual Hasty Pudding obsession seem mild, while the amours of various hermaphroditic characters is embarrassingly unfunny. The play's tasteless broadness clashes incongruously with Arthur Honegger's witty and sophisticated score which is its only saving grace...
Despite a cast containing many of the best singers around Harvard, the Lowell House Opera's production failed either to elevate the play or to do justice to Honegger's score. In the last act there was an inspirational moment suggesting what might have been done with the show: the king asks for some hot chocolate, and the stage is immediately inundated with his entire retinue, led by four flamenco dancers, in a hilarious parody. But this, and a few other isolated touches, were the only light spots in a generally strained evening...
Although allowances should be made for opening night missed cues and bad timing, it was still obvious that Alan Rinzler's direction left much to be desired. A play such as this requires imagination, subtlety, and a sense for absurdity which his staging lacked. The pacing was poor, and the blocking did nothing more than to solve the problem of a large cast on a small stage. The jest of funny characterizations soon wore thin, and nothing was done to sustain interest as the play wore...