Word: by-play
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...careful observer is close enough to the field of play to hear the by-play and verbal warfare that is continually going on. The varsity's midseason string of more than 200 scoreless minutes produced two extremely vocal clashes. In the 0-0 tie with Williams, Eph goalie Bob Adams continually exhorted his teammates to "get the big guy"--Keyes, the Crimson's main defensive cog. The Ephmen did their best, once actually dazing the big full-back, but they could not halt his effectiveness...
...Naturally, all this extra singing and dancing will take up a lot of time. And I do want the show to be entertaining above all, so I'd better play up the farcical opportunities and invent a lot of by-play. Still, I only have two hours and a half. Well, I'll do a little pruning here and there in the text; and I guess I'll just have to omit the whole taunting of Malvolio in prison, though I realize it's the climax of the entire anti-Malvolio plotting. This does mean I'm upsetting Shakespeare...
What is amazing about the show is not that the principals are good--this is expected--but that everyone in both choruses as well seems perfectly at ease on the stage and participates in the staccato by-play so central to this type of comedy. Both men's and women's choruses were superb musically and movement-wise with no trace of awkwardness...
...cast, who occasionally bellow or slur Carroll's wit right out of the range of their three-to-ten-year-old audience. But thanks to Thomas Whedon's direction, even when dialogue and lyrics fail to overcome the steady mutter of the junior critics, the pantomime and by-play are sufficient to keep them entertained...
Much better is the by-play between Weldy and the gang. Its leader is perhaps the most sympathetic character, played by Jack Kerr who is a frequent Brattle Theatre performer. More than any of the others, Kerr is able to transmit the fights between maturity and boyishness which are typical of adolescents. Stewart seems too much like a morose Henry Aldrich. And in the same way, his mother, Irene Hervey, never become a real individual; she is always the doting and misguided parent. Beyerly Lawrence, however, does quite well in the confusing part of the mother's friend...