Word: mosse
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...demanded a depth that Julie had to struggle to reach. It was almost a year after Boy Friend opened that she was offered the part in Fair Lady-and she nearly threw it away, so intimidated was she by the awful challenge of the trinity of Rex Harrison, Director Moss Hart and George Bernard Shaw. When she failed to get a fix on the mercurial part of the cockney flower girl, Director Hart put Julie through what he called 48 hours of "the Terror...
...cameos, Ken Tigar shines as Tigger, Leland Moss pleases the kiddies as Rabbit, and Mark Ritts takes off as Owl. But the genius lies in Charles Ascheim's sensitive, sunglassed portrayal of Eeyore. Here is a characterization of such depth, such impact, such raw power, that it defies description...
...there is a conceptual failing in director Leland Moss's rendering of Goat Island, it is that he makes Angelo, and not Agata, the play's center. This leaves the three women on too much of an equal and collectively subordinate level. Moss has had to miscast himself as Angelo, which in large measure explains this shift in emphasis, since he plays the part with too little earthly charisma, and too much surface charm, to be merely an agent of anything. Angelo emerges as a likeable rather than loveable character, and his appeal reaches as much to the audience...
...result, Jane Wingert cannot make a truly strong character out of Agata. Only at the very end, when she is on stage alone, do we get a sense that all the forces of Goat Island should direct themselves on her. And this comes as something of an anticlimax, because Moss has made almost too much of Angelo, giving him a weight he can't sustain in the play's resolution...
Probably the failings in Moss's performance derive from his also being the director, and the weak elements in his direction from his also being the star. The effect, however, is only to alter the play, not to cripple...