Word: slapsticker
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Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart called their script "a scenario for vaudevillians." Zaks' triumph is to pay homage to the days of Yiddish slapstick while using actors too young to have played the Catskills. Luckily, he has Nathan Lane as Pseudolus, the role created by Zero Mostel. Though only 40 and only Irish, Lane is the mystic repository of the ancients' physical gag bag. A double take is concrete poetry when he does it, and a pratfall a plie. He also elevates some of his more plebeian colleagues. Mark Linn-Baker, no natural farceur, is at first uneasy...
...rare bright spot came via the first scene featuring Danton Char (Ben Ibriated) and Jesse Hawkes (Dixie Ticonderoga) together. Their humorous blend of dance, slapstick and song put all but Andrew Burlinson's polished Marquesa to shame, even if it did stretch the bounds of Char's Bogart-infused voice...
Whatever dignity or solidity the play may have had is blown apart by the last scene, which is so preposterous as to border on slapstick. John the guitarist is killed in a comically unconvincing mugging; Joe the drummer is hauled off by the police after being accused by the prostitute of some vague crime, in response to which she does a hilarious touch-down-type victory dance. To make matters worse, all this is narrated by the formerly mute homeless...
...OUTRAGED AT YOUR PRINTING OF Keillor's piece on Thanksgiving. I almost choked to death while eating my jellied cranberry sauce. Garrison cooked a delightful stuffing of philosophical musings, corn-pone anecdotes and downright slapstick jokes. A milestone hoot. PAT STEPHENSON Prairie Village, Kansas
...roles of Phyllis and Bishop are extremely difficult, spanning the full range of emotion from slapstick to criminal insanity, and they are mostly handled well by Sarah Burt-Kinderman and Ryan McCarthy. Though McCarthy is unconvincing as the young Bishop--his stuttering remains an irritating mannerism rather than evidence of his inner conflcits--he plays the older, savage Bishop with the necessary energy and conviction. His long, shouted monologue about masturbation would sink the play if presented without utter confidence; fortunately, McCarthy is equal to the task. While it is troubling that McCarthy remains in that one loud register...