Word: whole
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...with conviction is limited indeed. When he is inspired, the impact of his existential query is startling, but more often than not he appears to concentrate exclusively on maintaining his accent. While much of the plot revolves around him, he never suitably explains or justifies his involvement in the whole business--or his determination to be hanged. Harper's characterization is too indifferent to convince observers that he cares about his fate or that of anyone else. He registers all emotion by waving his arms and pacing around the stage, though it seems strange that the most sullen character...
...clincher for Brustein's wooing of the Harvard administration was his promise to bring to Cambridge the famous Yale Repertory Company. Brustein can't promise to import the whole operation to the Loeb. He may simply set up another company. In any case, he has promised that it wouldn't cost Harvard a ce Brustein believes that he can raise the entire operating budget for the company through foundation grants and private donations. For Dean Rosovsky, struggling to balance his FAS budget, Brustein's offer must have been irresistible...
...surprisingly, the audience didn't seem anywhere nearly as bored as the cast with the whole thing. The story of "The Lass that Loved the Sailor" below her station--propelled by Gilbert's jabs at pomp and middle-class mediocrity--still fills an evening. But it was the deliberate self-conscious irony that made something out of Pinafore's obviously inane plot--the hundreds of little jokes in the script that combine to take all the starch out of the Victorian stuffed shirt...
Beyond making themselves understood, however, some of the cast falter, unsure whether to play the operetta utterly deadpan--letting the audience laugh at these ridiculous characters--or to reveal that they, too, know the whole thing is a joke. Catherine Weary's sparkling Josephine holds the stage through sheer vocal perfection alone--she could probably handle Puccini with ease. Donald Hovey's Ralph Rackstraw, too, has a full, clean tenor. Now, admittedly there isn't all that much anyonecan make of the milquetoast roles of the love-struck couple; but both Weary and Hovey shuffle between dead seriousness and deadpan...
...Both seem to know instinctively that they have to keep a lot of activity on stage, and their duet, "Things Are Seldom What They Seem," was the best number of the evening. Weary may sing better, but Falk and Woo tiptoe, mug and enliven their business the way the whole cast might have...