Word: sketches
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THOUGH THE THEMATIC scheme doesn't seem to have been fully worked out (One song on golf seems particularly ill placed), the production does sketch a progression of loneliness, to fantasy, almost to fulfillment--and back again. More important, though, it affords a showcase for Kerns's and Weiss's extraordinary range. Dashing around the cramped apartment, the actors create a pair of convincingly frustrated personalities entirely through song, since no dialogue connects one number to the next. Weiss in particular has a voice that stays equally strong and flexible over several octaves, and her command of Sondheim's sliding...
...this year, the office is asking much more of its alumni allies. Instead of expecting an objective sketch which will be used to complement a candidate's folder, the office now wants a finished portrait, clearly drawn with the kind of detail that leaves almost no room for error. A revised interview form sent out this year and last asks them to write three short essays outlining a student's potential academic, extracurricular, and personal contributions to Harvard. Even a professional artist cannot be expected to finish a portrait after only an hour sitting. If he wants...
What the NCEE failed to report, however, is that the tide of mediocrity has already begun to ebb. There are plenty of weaknesses still, but excellence has once again become part of the agenda in hundreds of school districts across the country. Statistics only sketch out the dimensions of the turnaround. Over the past three years, 53% of the 16,000 school districts nationwide have increased the number of credits they require in such core subjects as English, science and math; 38% more will upgrade their standards by 1985. During this same period, 69% of school systems have launched efforts...
Between all-too-predictable guests last week (Joan Collins, Erik Estrada), Thicke unveiled his regular troupe of sketch performers. Except for the razor-sharp cynicism of angular Richard Belzer and the loudly self-absorbed improvisations of Gilbert Gottfried, they came off as Not-Ready-Even-for-Late-Night Players. More promising are such regular features as Pipeline, a takeoff of Nightline, which last week examined a prison that had gone condo, and Flick of the Night, which overdubs old film clips with irreverent irrelevancies. The bookings may also improve. Already taped are interviews with less overexposed celebs like Lana Turner...
...other big difference between the two men is that Murphy shot into prominence within the dangerous discipline of television sketch comedy. From TV's long and distinguished list of skitcom graduates, the few who made a successful transition to movie stardom were usually those who had created and sustained their own ingratiating personalities on the small screen: Goldie Hawn's daffy blond, Chevy Chase's overage preppie. Bill Murray's blitzed-out party guy. The other group-the inspired mimics who hid themselves behind the galaxy of comic characters they portrayed-looked both stretched and cramped...