Word: scripted
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Assorted money-grubbing cavils aside, though, this production of Guys and Dolls has consistent quality. It can be argued, of course, that it is virtually impossible to mess up this play, blessed as it is with a tremendous score, a witty script that only now begins to show signs of wear, and a story so ingrained in the American conciousness all a director need do, it seems, is hand out the scripts and smile a lot. As these converted Damon Runyon fables are so tamiliar to anyone who has ever been involved in musical theater, there's no point...
...life crisis--Allen is playing with no less than his career. So if the weight of the world hung over Allen when he wrote and directed Interiors, it shows in the film. Interiors is very, very sober: the story chronicles a family's trials and collapse, and the script is filled with heavy dialogue. The father, played by a stalwart but silent E.G. Marshall, severs ties with his compulsive interior decorator-wife (Geraldine Page), breaking up a family that never seemed to be very close. Two daughters--Joey (Mary Beth Hurt), the father's favorite, and Renata (Diane Keaton...
...possibilities of such an audition stagger the imagination. You sign up Diana Ross, who is beautiful, sings Like crazy, and is known to bankers from a career dating back to the early '60s, when she was the lead singer of the Supremes. Ross is 34, so the script calls for a Dorothy who is 24 and a shy schoolteacher. This is awkward, because if the fantasy is to succeed, Dorothy must be childlike enough to be terrified of witches and wizards, and to talk trustingly with a scarecrow, a lion and a tin man. A woman...
...then Brown stumbled, and the ball bounded wildly forward, and the script for the thrilling classic was abandoned for a disastrous...
Seifter makes good use of a small church as the playhouse, and he paces the scenes well. He even suggests the teeming decay endemic to The Threepenny Opera in the opening scene. But failures of casting and characterization quickly break the spell. Brecht's script speaks directly enough, and Weill's music is brilliant enough, so that even a mediocre performance like Caravan's is worth seeing, especially if you've never seen the show before. But The Threepenny Opera ought to more than entertain; if the director, actors and musicians conspire aright, it can give you a whiff...