Word: singed
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...weakest link in Fantasticks is LeoPierre Roy, who plays El Gallo. Roy is a veteran of many Harvard theatricals, and his performance is not a casualty of incompetence, but miscasting. El Gallo is the most difficult role in the show. He must sing the beautiful opening ballad "Try to Remember," introduce the characters, narrate the action, abduct Luisa and allow himself to be beaten by Matt, and philosophize on the Meaning of It All. Roy is a good actor, but he is all wrong for the part, El Gallo is supposed to be dark, handsome, suave, sophisticated...
...there is. The main action of the first act--the attempted rape of Luisa that Huckelbee and Bellomy stage so that Matt can defeat her abductors in a moment of glory--isn't funny anymore. Rape is frighteningly real these days, and when El Gallo and the two fathers sing "It Depends on What You Pay," haggling over how elaborate an abduction El Gallo is to produce, we aren't tittilated and amused, but offended...
...just as de Tocqueville once mourned the demise of what he considered the idyllic, paternalistic system of feudal society in Europe, Jerry Jeff and all his friends sing a lament for the disappearance of small town society and Sunday church picnics...
...argot of Harlem and the South Bronx that gives the dialogue an authentic ring. The effective color and accuracy of the ghetto-flavored jive should hardly come as a surprise; Pinero owes this ability to evoke a particular brand of slang to his own experience as an inmate at Sing Sing Prison. The crisp repartee that dominates the opening moments of Short Eyes soon becomes a bit much, however, reflecting the actual origins of the work...
When the Harvard Christians get together on those Friday nights in the Lutheran church, they act much as any other undergraduate organization does. They sing, and talk with friends, and prepare to go on to parties afterwards. But they are there for the most important part of their lives--the service of Christ, Duff says, "Being a Christian means my own comfort or fun or even safety is not the greatest priority in my life. Christ literally gave up his whole life for us. I think we cannot follow Christ and rule out the possibility of giving up our lives...