Word: erhardt
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...hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Salvation Army this year and General William Booth would be well pleased with the quality of Harvard's dramatic tributes. First Steve Kaplan's Guys and Dolls, and now Michael Erhardt's Major Barbara, have done well by the order of the tambourine...
...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...
...wonder about John Ross. He hasn't got Lithgow's perfect timing or Erhardt's acid touch, but I've seen him be a lot funnier than he was here. I think the problem was that as Geronimo he hadn't much to hold on to. When he has a characterization to work out he can do it skillfully. Lacking that, he seemed merely to focus on the sound of his words and the sweep of his bows, and never evoked a solid character...