Word: vernal
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...crying out loud, the very name itself is misleading, if not an oxymoron. It's called "spring training," but by the time the vernal equinox is a reality, the regular season is only days away...
This play is moonstruck, magical and mythic. This production hints at these qualities but never quite lends them a fairyland shimmer and substance. Shakespeare's rich fund of vernal imagery all but makes up the deficit. If no real bird song lilts in a bosky dell, the playwright's words linger in the air like ineffable music. Shakespeare seems to extol a gentle harmony in nature, which he feels that gods, kings, lovers and men of common clay would do well to emulate. A shrewd judge of audiences, he sows discord to whet the appetite for concord...
...record sales coast to coast), morel mushrooms to find, robins to welcome, the Masters golf tournament to watch. Yes, and income taxes to be paid. But after the great and onerous winter of '77, the beaches would beckon, and life would be pleasant again. Such were the vernal promises, and Americans' individual hopes, as the year's most fickle season vented its varied whims...
With the sepulchral pines of Augusta and the select high priests of the game who grace the field, it's not surprising that the Masters is viewed with an almost religious reverence by the golfing world. The tournament has evolved into as integral a part of spring as the vernal effluorescense of woodbine and spanish dagger that line the fairways of Augusta National...
While the voices of the lovers are richly harmonious, their acting styles are not precisely attuned. Kahn, a proficient comedienne, caricatures herself at times. She lacks the vernal innocence intrinsic to the role. Bostwick, on the other hand, could be playing a slightly baffled Romeo, which happens to be just right for this part. Rita Moreno is an animated delight as the amorous prey of a slickly narcissistic cad (Laurence Guittard). and George Rose lends his customary authoritative presence to the role of the autocratic shop owner with a heart of fudge. As for Sheldon Harnick and Jerry Bock, they...