Word: sabath
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are America's foremost symbols of boyhood optimism, of romantic dreaming at the age when all life's options lie open. Bernard Sabath's The Boys in Autumn imagines those Mark Twain characters as disillusioned middle-aged men. The youths who fantasized becoming outlaws have done just that: Tom has a guilty secret that sent him wandering; Huck has a guilty secret that made him a recluse. On an afternoon in the Roaring Twenties they meet again and, after sputtering mistrust, struggle to renew a feeling of blood brotherhood in boundless adventure...
When the show opened on Broadway last week, many appalled theatergoers demanded, Who is Bernard Sabath and how dare he defile these golden scamps? That outrage underscores how deep a nerve the playwright is aiming for. If life has so disappointed Huck and Tom, the epitomes of hope, how can a spectator not be plunged into pessimism about his own unfulfilled ambitions? The execution is not quite so imaginative as the premise. Tom (John Cullum) and Huck (George C. Scott) are both using assumed names, so it takes a long, creaky while for them to acknowledge each other as they...
...their confessions fit Twain's characters. His Huck was a fierce individualist and a true obsessive, altogether capable of having turned into a bookish Bible thumper. Tom was a rule bender and a blamer of others, entirely likely to feel self-pity rather than remorse for the sexual crimes Sabath attributes to him. This plausibility is enhanced by masterly acting. Cullum ingratiatingly wheedles, brays and whines as Sawyer. As Huck, Scott combines the stern propriety of the convert to civilization with the lone wolf's fearsome force of nature. W.A.H...
Like most who love performing Sabath has toyed with the idea of becoming a professional actor. "But doing a show over and over again--it gets numbing. My longest run was eight shows. After 400 it becomes a job. After graduating Sabath plans to live in Manhattan and work at a computer firm. He doesn't foresee, however, totally giving up performing. Sabath plans to form an a capella quartet with some fellow graduates, the new group will reintroduce New York to the tunes of the forties...
...Sabath was offered the role of his choice? "I would play Tony in West Side Story. It's a romantic lead--a character part. And the play has such beautiful songs....Only the role is for a tenor. I would like to play Tevye again...