Word: wilderness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
PROMISES, PROMISES is an imitation of past successes, with a plot from the Wilder-Diamond film The Apartment and a structure borrowed from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Jerry Orbach and Marian Mercer turn in the best performances of the evening...
PROMISES, PROMISES is a Neil Simon musical to remember other musicals by: it is slick, amiable and derivative. With a plot line borrowed from the Wilder-Diamond film The Apartment and a structure copied from How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the show is not so much viewed as deja...
PROMISES, PROMISES is a Neil Simon musical to remember other musicals by: slick, amiable and derivative. With a plot line borrowed from the Wilder-Diamond film The Apartment and a structure copied from How to Succeed in Business With out Really Trying, the show is not so much viewed as deja vu'd. While Jerry Orbach will probably light up Broadway from this show onwards, his performance is not equal to his acting in Scuba Duba...
...taste. The show follows all the hallowed tac tics for promoting mediocrity into success. One does not gamble with $500,-000; one invests in the imitation of past successes. That means: Don't create -crib. Thus the plot line of Promises, Promises is derived from the Billy Wilder-I.A.L. Diamond film The Apartment, which was far sharper in lancing U.S. sexual hypocrisy, and the structure of the show has been borrowed from How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The evening is not so much viewed as deja...
...HEART of this incongruity, I think, lies the gap between Wilder and Diamond on the one hand, and Simon on the other. There would be no cause to criticize the show in such terms if it hadn't retained so much from the movie and at the same time acquired so much that is new and not quite in phase. Besides holding fast to the screenplay's construction, Simon has used several short sections of dialogue intact, which have in common that they come from the story's more serious episodes. In the funnier scenes, he has cut loose with...