Word: schtick
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...intention. The board clearly conveys the perils of Antony's passion; the longer it gets, the more wobbly and precarious the position--man at his tallest and most triumphantly masculine, may in a second topple into the waves and be lost forever. All we miss is the Esther Williams schtick; what we get is Antony and Cleopatra shouting at each other from across the pool, their passions mingling in the sea-air, their bodies metaphorically pulled under by the whimsical undertow of Fortune; Cleopatra viciously dunking the poor schlemiel who swims out with the news of Antony's political marriage...
...walking into things? I hate to admit it, but I did. Will you giggle helplessly when an assassin hands Sellers a round, black bomb with a sizzling fuse and tells him it's a special delivery package? Again, I plead guilty. How does Edwards get away with this old schtick? By keeping, I believe, his technique straightforward and limp, with no shock-cutting or screwy camera angles to jar us. Most of his shots are familiar medium-close-ups, underscored by Henry Mancini's familiar, likable Muzak...
...somewhat different interpretation to the part. He portrays Nick as slightly more wise-ass and more adult, though he too suffers from a too rapid and mumbled delivery at the play's outset. He improves quickly and is especially good at reacting to Miller adding more grimaces and physical schtick to the role...
...showbiz kamikaze. But the piece is great, and, as Speiser runs it down, what's immediately thrust on you besides the pleasure of belly laughter is the recognition that no matter how good an actor he is, you can't naturally play a fifties audience. Since Bruce's whole schtick hinged on his ability to engage and provoke his audience, the whole recreation is inevitably skewed...
...DIRECTOR BOORSTIN. my heart goes out. He has ransacked his highly fertile comic imagination to give the work life, and his failure reflects not a bit on his ample theatrical skills. His staging is sprinkled with Godot -like schtick and much of it is amusing. I also liked some tricks he did with recorded music and the stage itself during the show's first moments...