Word: tone
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...design is not just an innovative gimmick: it adds a crucial element of fun--something that the musical in its original version lacked. A production in the 1950s boasted a book by Lillian Hellman, lyrics Richard Wilbur, and music by Leonard Bernstein. But its cynical, pompous tone was almost totally out of touch with that of Voltaire's novel, a satiric classic that describes how a young innocent named Candide, whose tutor has taught him to believe this "the best of all possible world1," experiences an interminable and hysterical series of disasters that teach him to view life...
Hughes has a big smile and good looks, but ten lines into his first speech he drops the thread of Shakespearian poetry and never picks it up again. His voice maintains the same pace and tone throughout the show, except at moments of special excitement when he raises it up high in his throat in a doomed attempt to communicate wonderment. When he is banished for killing Juliet's cousin in a duel and flees to his confessor's cell, he collapses on the floor and cries; the irritating sobs continue interminably. They seem an admission of the actor...
...movie. The worst lies in the sweetness of Shire's manner and the brutal actions required of her by a confused script. The Belushi character perhaps deserves what happens to him, but the sequence is so farcically overstated that it is not much more than a mistake in tone. The rape of Carradine's sanity is not so easily dismissed. It cannot be integrated with the decently questing character Shire has developed. We do not believe this woman is so desperate, or that she has an adequate excuse for her destructive behavior. It is also hard to accept...
...downs of his attepts to woo Agnes. Toope has the energy to play Arnolphe, but little of the control and pacing. He succumbs to the temptation--so strong in Moliere's plays--to overact. He rants too much, usually beginning his long monologues too vehemently and maintaining the same tone throughout. This inevitably becomes tedious. His grimacing is equally overdone. Toope has a face that rivals Jerry Lewis's for its malleability. He abuses this asset, however, and often seems to forcing his face into a random series of contortions...
...depicts his character's subtle transformation from a young rake interested only in an amourous conquest into a sicere and passionate suitor. Chrysalde (James A. Bundy), Arnolphe's friend and Moliere's obligatory voice of reason, is also pleasantly portrayed. With an agreeably light touch, Bundy successfully combines a tone of reasonableness with one of faint mockery. Christian D. Clemenson excels as the notary. Positively inflated with pomposity, he delivers Moliere's gentle (in this case) parody of complacent bureaucrats with hilarious accuracy...