Word: witness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...episodes test the viewer's patience, and there is considerably more wit in the film's sumptuous design than in its dialogue. But anyone with an educated eye and a child's love of hyperbole can take delight in Gilliam's images and incidents. Starlight spangles a lunar beach as the baron's ship drifts ashore for his interview with an Italianate creature (Robin Williams, unbilled and hilarious) who identifies himself as "the King of Everything -- Rei di Tutto. But you may call me Ray." The king's body is detachable from his head, which provokes schizophrenia of celestial proportions...
Clearly, more is riding on this show than a mere $8 million. For Jerome Robbins' Broadway is a sacred remnant of the musical at its mid-century peak -- a fusion of wit, precision, melody and high spirits -- that an aging generation of theater lovers miss terribly and want back. "We are in an era of high school production numbers and arias set to a backbeat," says Jule Styne, who wrote songs for five Robbins musicals. "A lot of people will see this show and realize what they've missed." Co-producer Emanuel Azenberg must hope so too. "Shows that have...
...striking singer in the entire company. The most problematic is Robert + La Fosse, a New York City Ballet star who moves gloriously but whose facial expression seems limited to a scowl and a simpering grin. Jason Alexander, who serves as narrator and plays seven characters, has wit, charm and the requisite razzmatazz -- his parts in Forum and Fiddler were played by Zero Mostel -- but lacks the star attribute of effortless ease. Yet if Robbins has not unearthed the treasure trove that many hoped for, he still offers a richly illuminated manuscript from the book of Broadway's beloved past...
...Sanders Theater with a folk music extravaganza. Gilbert, formerly with the Weavers, is known for her strong contralto voice and has been performing since the 1940s. Paxton is the author of "Rambling Boy" and "The Last Thing on My Mind," and is known for his satire and sentimental wit. Tonight, the two combine their talents in what should be an outstanding first-time-together performance...
...browbeaten wives and one henpecked husband toy with ditching their spouses, a notion that is faintly feminist for its time. Fittingly, the best performances come from Fredi Olster and Joy Carlin as the resentful wives and the delightful Ruth Kobart as a domineering dragon. Randall Duk Kim has wit and charm as Kobart's newly disobedient husband, but in a ghastly miscalculation, his Asian features have been caked with ruddy makeup so thick it resembles house paint. The show, superbly revived in London in 1986, is a souffle that never quite rises at A.C.T. If it has taken...