Word: splendids
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...novel, on the brink of the opera's opening night, the narrative pauses briefly to consider Oliver Twentyman, a trouper in his 80s who will sing the role of Merlin the magician: "He liked being old -- and still a great artist. Age, linked with achievement, was a splendid crown to life." So it is, as this novel and Davies' remarkable career munificently demonstrate...
...matter. Not anymore, now that UB40 finally has its breakthrough American record, a splendid, island-tinged version of Neil Diamond's 1968 Red Red Wine. This is the same song UB40 couldn't put over five years ago. By one of those odd combinations of luck and fluke that make the music business so curious, + J.J. Morgan, a deejay at KKFR-FM in Phoenix, played the tune during a show in May, and, he reports, "within 24 hours, Red Red Wine was our most requested song. We didn't intend to make it a hit. It just happened...
What makes The Cocktail Hour Gurney's most emotionally satisfying play is that audiences need not catch any of these highfalutin references to savor a splendid, old-fashioned family confrontation. This is indeed a play of the style celebrated by the parents, in which secrets are discovered, forgiveness bestowed and the ending genuinely happy. Its theme is universal. Why, Gurney asks, when family relationships look so much alike, does each turn out to be unique? Why, despite good intentions, do parents love one child more than another -- and why do the children keep caring, right into their...
Jack O'Brien has preserved his deft, unobtrusive staging of the original production at San Diego's Old Globe Theater, where he is artistic director, and has retained a splendid company: Bruce Davison as the playwright, Holland Taylor as his discontented sister, Keene Curtis as their fussy paterfamilias and Emmy winner Nancy Marchand as the mother. Puffing up her husband, belittling her offspring, getting slowly sozzled with "just a splash" -- a command she never barks the same way twice -- Marchand at first appears silly and superficial. Like the play, she turns out to have surprising depths...
...earlier life Shirley MacLaine was a splendid actress. Not so in her current incarnation as the Auntie Mame of films and chat shows. Her Madame is a cacophony of jangling bracelets and coquettish demands -- just the sort of acting that wins Oscars. Schlesinger's direction suits his star, with visual metaphors as subtle as a wrecking ball against a London house. Down goes the old world of nattering gentility; up comes the high-rise of Third World aspirations...