Word: plot
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...strange bit justifies-to the extent that a Pudding plot requires-Lyfe's complicity in an elaborate hoax masterminded by billionaire "horseshoe magnate" Richard Denuar (Jason Tomarken). Uncertain of his family's affection in his declining years, Denuar hits upon a clever scheme to test the love of his four daughters and sixth wife: He will feign illness and then stage his own funeral to learn his family's true feelings. Only those who love him for himself will earn a share of his fortune...
This all makes for a pretty complicated Pudding plot. Fortunately, though, the authors of this year's script-Oscar Alacantara, Jonathan Lisco and Jonathan Greenberg-realize that people come to Pudding shows for lyrics, puns and kicklines...
...contrast, Saint Misbehavin' resorts to tradition: a plot whose sole purpose is to stay out of the way of the all-important puns, lyrics and can-can lines. From the audience level, there's no question that this is what Pudding shows are supposed to be about...
However, the use of stereotypes in the development of character and plot detracted from the piece itself, as well as from the progressive atmosphere engendered by its production. The plot did not necessitate its strict as well as gratuitously degrading gender stereotypes. An atmosphere of innovative, progressive theatre or thought cannot exist if regressive, repressive stereotypes are encompassed by the very forms of innovation...
Another Oscar prospect, Lasse Hallstrom's hit Swedish comedy My Life as a Dog, teaches that pubescence is a messy uphill battle. And now two French films arrive to clinch the argument that in Europe, childhood is a daunting entrance exam for premature adulthood. Their plot is archetypal: a boy is sent away from home for a wrenching rite of passage. In Jean-Loup Hubert's The Grand Highway, the lad learns conventional wisdom, and the film evokes familiar smiles and tears. In Louis Malle's Au Revoir les Enfants, the Nazi occupation of France triggers a boy's crisis...