Word: zelman
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Although the play lacks in momentum and energy, its production is marked with some powerhouse performances. Aaron Zelman, as the accused, has a wondeful talent for generating sympathy from the audience. With his awkward and frazzled mannerisms and earnest outbursts, Zelman plays Vole as a victim of his own naivete. When the truth finally comes out about Vole and the trial, one truly feels betrayed. Mark Fish as Sir Wilfrid Robarts, Vole's attorney, provides an appropriate balance for Zelman's quirkiness. Tempering his strong voice and presence with genuine smiles and engaging body language, Fish manages to make...
Mamet writes his characters larger than life. Unless an actor flings himself into his role whole-heartedly, the portrayal becomes self-conscious. Aaron Zelman succumbs to this danger in his portrayal of Gould. As the play progresses, he adapts his style admirably to the ups and downs of his character's troubled psyche, playing the sobered, morning-after Gould with dull compassion. But, especially in Gould's brasher incarnations, Zelman never seems quite convinced that he can carry off such an outrageous script. He knows that we know that he's acting...
...parallel story line, Janie's best friend Harriet Cornwall (Sumalee Gunanukorn), a Harvard M.B.A., climbs the corporate ladder at Colgate-Palmolive while she is sleeping with her boss's boss, Paul Stuart, who is married. Paul (Aaron Zelman) is suitably unctuous. Harriet is ambitious and serves well as the straight woman for many of the jokes on Yiddish pronunciation that had the Loeb Ex audience laughing out loud at the play. Claire Ellis turns in a convincing performance as the corporate achiever Lillian Cornwall, Harriet's motn. Bill Selig and Mark Fish were both serviceable in their supporting roles...
...plot--or at least the reasonable facsimile thereof--thickens. Grump is backing his own babe, Delia Cards (Aaron Zelman), the thoroughly corrupt golddigger with whom he sings "It's Good to Be Evil." (Sample lyrics: "Being kind is kinda stupid/ Being just is just as dumb.") So Grump tries to blackmail the pageant's judges: Wyatt Stinksinhere (a Yosemite Sam parody played by Michael Rosenbaum), Austin Tation (a Don King parody played by Todd Kessler) and Ali Caneet (a Muhammad Ali parody played by Skip Sneeringer...
Ophelia Bottoms (Jason Tomarken) is engaged to marry Sir Cumference (you guessed it; he's fat), although Ophelia hates her round suitor. Meanwhile her aunt, Lady Andatramp (Michael Starr) is plotting for her own daughter, Jane Eyrehead (Glenn Kaiser) to catch the rich bachelor. But Sir Cumference (Daniel Zelman) is only rich because he drove Ophelia's brother, Captain Acaje (Andrew Dietderich), crazy and so stands to inherit the Bottoms' family fortune and estate...