Word: erhardt
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...male leads are miscast--Michael Erhardt as Moncrieff only slightly, and Thomas Babe as Worthing more seriously. But both overcome this and emerge as the most dependable members of the nine-man cast, Erhardt generally underplays his outrageous lines, and Babe doesn't have...
...peopled by refugees from The Threepenny Opera, both as characters and actors. Peter Johnson and Susan Channing sneer at each other across two inches of mutual nose. Leland Moss stalks and glowers while Vernon Blackman, as the smallest and most industrious of the Cockney quartet, loots the tambourine. Erhardt's direction keeps things moving although the first two acts seem hampered by the shallow sets, forcing all movement into one plane...
...Erhardt himself plays Andrew Undershaft, and does so forcefully. However, I would question his interpretation. Undershaft should be an obnoxious man. When the audience is forced to admit that what he says is true, it should be regretfully, as Shaw puts it, "with a pain in the self-esteem." We should begrudge the nobility of Undershaft's thought. As Erhardt played the role, his manners were already too noble, his voice too Stentorian...
...audience was convinced Undershaft was right before Barbara was and this made the role of Barbara, played by Patricia Hawkins, much more difficult. She seemed both far more naive and far more pigheaded than Shaw intended. Barbara has to separate the truthful doctrine from the repulsive personality of Undershaft. Erhardt was too engaging, too soon...
...both Erhardt and Miss Hawkins play their roles in a way consistent with Erhardt's interpretation. And like the rest of the cast, they managed to ground Shavian moralizing and epigrams on a firm base of Shavian entertainment...