Word: reiffel
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...Zuss, Alice Brown's booming voice and flamboyant style capture the arrogance of her character, a person so awed by the splendor and magnificence of the Almighty that she can never doubt the rightness of His actions. Her performance perfectly complements rumpled David Reiffel's Nickles, to whom MacLeish gives the play's most cynicism at one moment and impassioned pleas for humanity at the next, never allowing his scenes with Brown to become bogged down in the author's cosmic ideas. Both performers display an impressive dramatic range as their feelings toward their "pigeon," J.B., grow more complex...
Credit for the show's success must go not only to the actors, but to director Reiffel, who also designed the music, lighting, and sparse but functional set. Only in the first scene of "Garden" when Norman enters carrying his pajamas, does Reiffel's staging falter. As Norman slinks about and Tom stalks a lost cat, the pacing is off, and the scene drags...
...Reiffel more than makes up for the problems in the opening with a riotous climax in the second act in which Annie and Norman collapse onto the lawn in a tumult of passion as Reg and Tom chat obliviously only a few feet away...
...Dark of the Moon's characters are hollow, the stage atmosphere compensates and redeems Music director David L. Reiffel, however, has turned an already obvious plot into a play that has the subtlety of a bulldozer. You know when somebody says something prophetic (thunder claps in the background) and you know when the witches are coming (bizarre piano medleys screech behind the gauze curtains). The best musicians, meanwhile--banjo and fiddle players Thornton Lewis and Matthew Brown--make one stage appearance and, sad to say, disappear...
Unfortunately, the play does not allow her to establish any defined relationship with Dr. Schon, her benefactor (David Reiffel). The scenes involving the two of them, with the exception of Lulu's declaration of love, lack any sense of tension or attraction. Here Reiffel might improve his otherwise effectively sardonic characterization by displaying more passion. He is so ironic and biting that his later capitulation does not ring true...