Word: toms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...back George's Jewish challenger, Sharman. James Daley, (Jon Terry) unloved and unsuccessful, is embittered with his job as a junior high school principal, and regards himself as a man of "unfulfilled potential." James feels he has been held back by his obligations to his recently-deceased father and Tom (William Leach) his alcoholic brother. And through it all is the coach (Alan Gifford), spouting maxims, insisting that they must hang tough with each other; nothing has changed in 20 years, it is still us against them. "Beat that Jew, Beat that Jew," sneers Tom, "Go Gentiles...
...part of Tom, the alcoholic, can only be convincing when the entire play is working. He is the most poorly developed character, the one we know the least about; he circles around the action making caustic comments without permitting anyone to know him. William Leach fills the bill competently although his final breakdown is incomprehensible to us, having been given no previous background about his character. Leach does not handle this weakness in Miller's script very well; and apparently he too failed to find the motivation for his character's collapse...
...lunge in the Italian manner, the whole body parallel with the ground and supported...upon his left hand. He sent his point ripping upward under de Bernis'guard. But de Bernis...passed his sword from side to side through the captain's extended body. Standing over Tom Leach as he lay coughing out his evil life upon the sands, Monsieur de Bernis ruefully shook his head...
...this production is short on transcendent acting, it is for once also totally free of atrocious elocution--even in the bit parts, where one tends to find vocal ineptitude. I cannot fail to mention Tom McDermott's lovable portrayal of the tired old Adam, a role that some evidence indicates Shakespeare himself originally played. Praise too for Keith Baker, making his AST debut as Amiens; not only does he speak well but he proves himself an absolutely splendid tenor in rendering Lee Hoiby's songs. And the bright E-major setting of "It was a lover and his lass...
...screenplay by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins is full of prime ideas and opportunities, like a sequence in which the newly formed All-Stars learn how to parade into a small Midwestern town. First they Tom it up, as if auditioning for a minstrel show, then the team starts strutting with a fine, brassy pride, sweeping the local citizenry along. Handled right, that scene could have had the jazzy fervor of a jam session at high noon. Director John Badham, however, seems mostly concerned with producing the kind of fancy optical effects that used to punctuate Busby Berkeley routines...