Word: comically
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John Waters understands. For a quarter-century, the 47-year-old filmmaker has been America's pre-eminent satirist of domestic depravity. He is also an elegant comic essayist, who puckishly wrote in 1985 that killing a celebrity is "the only sure-fire route to overnight front-page fame." And he is a connoisseur of the judicially sensational, attending many a grotesque trial. Waters can sagely note the media's glamorizing and merchandising of felony -- "These days you can commit a crime, and two weeks later it's a TV movie" -- and in the next breath give a rave review...
...fairies revive themselves nicely for the singing and dancing. The chorus of lords too, seem to be enjoying themselves more while striding around, despite their expressions of aristocratic displeasure. The chorus voices support each other and blend well, bringing out the harmonies and comic flourishes in Sullivan's score...
Speaking strictly in terms of a comedy, the lack of a coherent mood becomes the greatest stumbling block to success. A light-hearted comic musical, by time-honored tradition, is understood to end happily no matter what happens in the first four acts. No one dies, only the villains end up with egg on their face, and just about everyone finds a love to run off with. Although the Bergman film on which the musical is based, "Smiles of a Summer Night," explores the darker side of romance, Sondheim's script and score revert to a more optimistic vision. HRDC...
...McGahern, the question of overarching literary value is more or less a futile, comic exercise, as he said in a recent interview with the Crimson. His definition of good writing is a simple one. "The best guide," Mr. McGahern said, "to what's good writing is what interests us or gives us pleasure. It's not the only guide, but I think it's the least fallible...
...directors who are "confronting the difficulties of producing original, independent--minded projects." This year's winners will be Filip Forgeau and Maryel Ferraud who directed "L'Iguane." the somber, grey fantastical portrayal of Frag, a man who has just gotten out of jail and Matthew Harrison for his "darkly comic tale of an outlaw bowler's search for his long-lost father" entitled "Spare...