Word: schticks
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...energy and the split-second timing. Director Stephen Ives has fine-tuned this comedy of manners into a fast-paced social commentary, demanding consistent and sincere performances from his cast. He controls the humor and tone of the play with a light hand, never letting the performances lapse into schtick or inappropriate vaudeville. The set, by Constantine Antoniades, and the costumes, by Anne Troy, integrate naturally into the light tone of the production...
Ignoring for the moment that this schtick with the bakers is so tiresome and hammed-up that even the children in the audience cringe: the scene destroys the clever suggestion of designer Ken Moya's simple wedding cake. Furthermore, the overture, given a first-rate reading under Joyce Bynum's direction, is relegated to the role of mere background music...
Surely those old gags would have gasped their last. How long can a comic repeat the same wife-ethnic-sex jokes and secure a strong laugh? If the comic is Henny Youngman, the answer is--a lifetime. "The King of the One-liners" has used the same schtick for almost 50 years--and it still works...