Word: shalhoub
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Rameau's Nephew is ostensibly the record of a conversation between two characters, I (Jeremy Geidt) and He (Tony Shalhoub), at the Cafe de la Regence in Paris. I is a philosopher who spends hours "observing all, talking to none," at his favorite haunts. He is the outcast nephew of the celebrated French composer Jean Philippe Rameau. Their verbal duel can either be interpreted as a disagreement of lifestyles between two people or as a vocalized internal struggle within an ambiguous individual...
...Rameau's nephew, the material failure who wears his cynicism on his ragged sleeve, Tony Shalhoub is a masterpiece of spite. He rants and raves against the evils of his society but can't escape his hunger for those rich possessions which he claims to disdain. Shalhoub knows how to milk a good joke, but he occasionally drifts into tedium by repeating the same gag or mannerism...
...other hand, his interaction with the audience is marvelous; Shalhoub clutches one audience member's legs and tries desperately to unload a bust of his uncle which bursts into song whenever it emerges from his pocket. Several of Shalhoub's extended monologues (one consists entirely of coughing) are excellent, and despite his external unpleasantness, the nephew's position is sympathetic. After all, most people have tried at some time or another to pretend that money doesn't matter, only to discover its vital importance when confronted with the need for sustenance and clothing...
...characters is highlighted with a minimum of movement. One clever touch is Belgrader's decision to spice the 18th Century satire with modern references and expletives; they serve both to shock the audience into attention and remind us that the script has meaning for contemporary society. Another is Shalhoub's coughing jag, with its reference to Topol's song "If I Were a Rich Man" from Fiddler on the Roof...
...ruin the reputations of upright citizens through rumor. Lady Sneerwell (Shirley Wilber), it turns out, is also passing the time by angling for the heart of a young heir to-be-named Charles Surface (Stephen Rowe); her strategy is to connive with Charles's brother Joseph (Tony Shalhoub) in his attempts to win the heart of Charles's sweetheart Maria (Karen MacDonald). Matters become more complicated with the question of Charles and Joseph's inheritance from a rich uncle; the boys ward, a middle-aged curmudgeon bewildered by his pretty young wife, disagrees with the rich uncle as to which...