Word: stagings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...with the obdurate Begin policy: make no real concessions, establish more settlements in the occupied territories and maintain military superiority indefinitely and at any cost. Or the Israelis could make the concessions that Sadat is seeking in order to achieve a declaration of principles with Egypt, sign a first-stage peace agreement and work toward ultimate settlements with the other Arab combatants. This could result in a reduction of Israel's own security position in the West Bank and make the country somewhat more vulnerable than it is at present, but it could also lead Israel to permanent peace...
Though the increasingly Rubensian Elizabeth Taylor is a good choice to play the aging actress heroine, Prince has photographed his star so uncharitably that she looks like a raunchy barmaid. Most of the supporting players, including the talented Len Cariou, are stage actors with no screen presence. At least Diana Rigg and Hermione Gingold, playing the cattiest of the women in Hugh Wheeler's overly bitchy script, provide Night Music with a glimmer of razzle-dazzle...
...heard here to maximum effect. Some of the best numbers (e.g., The Miller's Son) have been dropped, others have been reworked, and most of the rest (notably Taylor's Send in the Clowns) are ineptly performed. The only song that retains its full stage power is A Weekend in the Country, in which music and lyrics merge ingeniously to sum up at least five of the story's subplots and seven of its characters at once. Even in the context of this moribund film, the number is so magically conceived that it could pass...
Medals should be struck for all mem bers of the cast. As Da, Hughes is an expansive field marshal of lifelong defeat who acts with the authority of an uncaged lion. The ensemble surrounding him reminds one again that the richest single treasure of the U.S. stage may be its actors...
...appear always to be running into each other, often at the least advisable moment. The production of 13 Rue de l'Amour at Manhattan's Circle in the Square comes creditably close to the Feydeau tempo and spirit, but it is difficult to orchestrate an arena stage to that crescendo of forbidden doors being opened and closed on which Feydeau depends...