tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25201204340396247752024-02-20T11:29:26.125-08:00The Simile-Metaphor MavenFun fact about figurative language by by the author of Metaphors Dictionary and the NEW Similes Dictionary. elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.comBlogger82125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-77231139297661332492016-07-09T18:47:00.000-07:002016-07-09T18:47:25.630-07:00Similes in Elizabeth Swados's Runaways Elizabeth Swados's 1971 musical Runaway has been pretty much forgotten over the years-- but the Encores! Off Center revival is buoyed by a terrific young ensemble and despite its now rather dated era and references, many of the lyrics are still pungent and include some excellent similes. For example, the poignant "Song of a Child Prostitute" likens a pimp-prostitute arrangement to a "mutual enterprise" and says that <b><span style="color: red;">"sex is a business like kitchenware." </span></b><br />
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"O the Dead of Family Wars" has oys and girls seeing their mothers and fathers as<span style="color: red;"> "scraping the strength off selves like bark off trees" </span>or their lives<span style="color: red;"> " spread out like caged bird wings" </span>and <span style="color: red;">"close up chance close like fat cardboard books." </span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"> Here's the link to my eview of the all too brief run at City Center www.curtainup.com/runawaysencores.html</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"> </span>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-78110271157917772712016-05-02T06:18:00.004-07:002016-05-02T06:18:30.877-07:00Shuffle Along's Wild About Harry"" is "sweet just like cotton candy<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i> he's sweet just like chocolate candy<br />Or like the honey from a bee</i></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> This lyric is from the best remembered song, " I'm Just Wild About Harry " given fresh life in George C. Wolfe's exhilarating homage to the creaters of the 1921 musica<i>l </i>hit <i> Shuffle Along. </i>Here's a link to my review of the recently opened show:<i><a href="http://www.curtainup.com/shufflealong16.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/shufflealong16.html</a></i></span></blockquote>
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elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-1820908320562770832015-09-05T05:28:00.001-07:002015-09-05T05:28:20.068-07:00A Delicate Ship is enriched by lyrical similes<span style="font-size: large;"> Anna Ziegler's sad, lovely little play A Delicate Ship is essentially a love triangle. It begins as a quite evening between Sarah and her still new boyfriend Sam and turns into a contest for her affections with the arrival of childhood best friend Nate. The play is s enriched by smart and often lyrical dialogue, especially by the play's catalyst character, Nate -- as in this plea for her to live with him from which the play takes its title:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> Not if you let yourself. . .not if we were . . .You
would never let me down. You couldn't We'd get through it all
together; <span style="color: red;">we'd traverse the endless series of days like
explorers in a ship made of time itself,</span> its delicate sails moving
easily through the churning water. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The volatile Nate describes his constant unhappiness and discontent with another lyrical simile: </span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">I cant accept that my life disappears behind me like a retreating wave,
never to be seen
again. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">To read my review see: <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/delicateship15.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/delicateship15.html</a></span><br />
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elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-5026246040617477562015-06-04T09:49:00.000-07:002015-06-04T09:49:00.527-07:00Jim Parson's similistic view of prayer in a An Acto of God<span style="font-size: large;"> The new Broadway season s launched by Jim Parson as God's stand-in in David Javerbaum's adaptation of his riff on a memoir written by the almighty. The spiffily staged but slight comedy is loaded with zingers, some funnier than others. I, of course why amused by the way y Parson's viewed prayer:</span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">From my point of view, prayer is<br />like an emergency services switchboard manned by<br />one operator who gets 12 million calls a minute.</span></b></span></blockquote>
Here's a link to the full review at curtainup.com<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.curtainup.com/actofgodbway15.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/actofgodbway15.html</a></span> elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-20604285414720567592015-05-24T13:17:00.003-07:002015-05-24T19:31:22.138-07:00Metaphorically speaking a#Outer Critics Awards i <span style="font-size: large;">This is the season for a tsunami of awards ceremonies. The most relaxed and most fun one is the Outer Cirtics Circle awards dinner at the legendary Sardi's restaurant. With only winners invited and each table a mix of OCC Members, honorees and their guests, the event is small and intimate and mercifully short. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The speeches too are brief but always fun. As an incorrigible tropes spotter, my favorite this year was the descripton of the roles in the award winning revival of <b>Y</b><i><b>ou Can't Take It With You</b>:</i></span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"Eccentric characters practically crawl out of the woodwork at the family home in <i>#You Can’t Take It With You</i>, and a couple of them crawled into award contention for the first time–in this category. One wa<b>s a tipsy actress who determinedly climbs the staircase as if it were Everest. The other—our honoree, #Annaleigh Ashford -- was a wannabe ballerina who kept the play in a constant state of bad poetry-in-motion, never walking across the room when she can bound across it like a demented ostrich.</b> </span></blockquote>
<br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-15374515020997940042015-03-22T12:37:00.001-07:002015-03-22T12:37:12.689-07:00This Encores! revival made mefeel "light as a bumblebee" The wonderful Encores! concert series did a wonderful production of a Lerner and Loewe musical with a wonderful score but troublesome book that probably accounts for it's neglect since 1951. While the lyrics aren't on a par with Oscar Hammerstein or Stephen Sondheim we did catch a few very apt similes.<br />
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The one below by the top name beneath the title, Keith Carradine, served as a nice lead-in quote:<br />
I sure wish your mother was here. She'd know what to do. She was a real lady. She could read and she could write, just like you will someday. And she talked<b><span style="color: red;"><i> softer than a leaf hittin' water.</i></span></b><br />
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Here are a few other catchy ones. . .<b><i><span style="color: red;"><br /> You’re as useless as a milk-can in a bullpen --</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: red;">I’m feeling higher than a lark can sing</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: red;">Oh what a day!/ I'm feeling flighty as a bumblebee!</span></i></b><br />
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Here's a link to my review of the show<a href="http://curtainup/encorespaintyourwagon.html" target="_blank"> </a><a href="http://curtainup/encorespaintyourwagon.html" target="_blank">curtainup/encorespaintyourwagon.html</a> <br />
w<br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-90498780136140315412015-03-16T06:40:00.003-07:002015-03-16T06:40:27.443-07:00<span style="color: red;"><b><i>Life is like a train!</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b><i>A roaring rushing train!<br />You get on at the beginning,</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b><i>You get off at the end.</i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b><i> </i></b></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">The train inspiring this similistic ditty is, of course, the once fabulous 20th Century with its redcaps, plush compartments and other amenities. In the new revival of the musical screwball comedy , <i>On the Twentieth Century, </i>the four tap-dancing porters (no wheelies needed back in 1932) who introduce the 2nd act with that ditty stop the exuberant show.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">For more about the show, here's a link to my revie</span></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;"><b>w<a href="http://www.curtainup.com/onthe20thcentury15.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/onthe20thcentury15.html</a></b> </span></span>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-74434269222309874992015-01-30T18:52:00.002-08:002015-01-30T18:54:25.537-08:00Similes from A Month of the Country now at Classic StageNew York's <b>Classic Stage Company,</b> an off-Broadway Company that attracts actors with bog office magnetizing names is currently presenting a fine revival of Ivan Turgenev's <b><i>A Month in the Country.</i></b><br />
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Typical of these long-ago Russian plays, there are plenty of interesting secondary characters with their own subplots-- in this case romantic interests. The most amusing of these is between the play's country doctor and a spinster, which lacks the sizzling passion of the Country Estate's beautiful doyenne. To wit a hilarious no-nonsense proposal which nevertheless insures that the Good Doctor has a fully functioning libido as indicated by his assurance that her "somewhat old-maidish" ways will be no problems since <b>"in the hands of a good husband, a woman is like soft wax."</b> <br><br><br />
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I also liked this this extend simile in which the beautiful, Natalya tells her best brainy friend bored chatelaine of a Russian estate who falls madly in love with her child's tutor. She also has a flirtatious friendship with a friend Ratikin whose way with words she enjoys but that don't move her:<br />
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"You’re clever, but... your words are like lace – intricate and beautifully constructed. But you know how they make it? Lace? In airless rooms without windows, hunched over their work fourteen hours a day. Lace is lovely, but give me a drink of fresh water on a hot day any time."<br />
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Here's a link to my review of the production <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/monthinthecountrycsc15.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/monthinthecountrycsc15.html</a> elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-12627175235415863382015-01-22T18:47:00.000-08:002015-01-22T18:48:12.474-08:00Colorful speech comes natural to the Irish-- New York's invaluable <b>Irish Rep Theater</b> is currently reviving Hugh Leaonard's <i><b>D a</b>-</i>- the title character being the father from whom his son Charlie would like to distance himself. But this being an Irish play, the old guy refuses to stay put even after he's dead -- or as Charlie puts it<br />
<b><span style="color: red;">"he keeps coming back like a yo-yo."</span></b><br />
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This being a memory play we also see Charlie being interviewed for his first job by the dour Mr. Drumm who knows the boy is too smart for it and advises him not to take it with this pungent simile <b><span style="color: red;">"jobs are like lobster pots, harder to get out of than into. . ." </span></b> And sure enough, it takes thirteen years for Charlie to get out of that figurative lobster pot. <br />
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Once he is in London and a successful playwright he wants his aging Da to come live with him and greets the old man's refusal with "you'd rather <b><span style="color: red;">stay here instead like a maggot in a cabbage and die of neglect."</span></b><br />
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Here's a link to Curtainup's review of the production<br />
<a href="http://www.curtainup.com/dairishrep15.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/dairishrep15.html</a> <br />
<br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-35959171489600872062014-11-07T11:29:00.000-08:002014-11-07T11:29:03.524-08:00My culture is dying--like salt--a simile fromSarah Ruhl's new play#Sarah Ruhl is a playwright with an original and often poetic voice. Her latest play, The Oldest Boy is about a woman married to a Tibetan Buddhist faced with the shocking news that her child might be a reincarnated Lama. Her husband at first resisted marrying her as it would mean being untrue to the demands of his cultural heritage, the romance does move forward despite his metaphorical reasoning below:<br />
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<blockquote>
<i>I have to marry someone of my culture. My culture is dying. It's
like salt I have to marry someone of my culture. My culture is dying.
It's like salt dissolving into water, my people dissolving. If you put a
small amount of salt into a very large pool of water,
and take a sip, the water is no longer salty. It disappears.</i></blockquote>
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Here's the link to my full review: <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/oldestboy14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/oldestboy14.html</a> <br />
elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-90795732530619633762014-10-29T06:58:00.006-07:002014-10-29T06:58:39.357-07:00A #simile from #Suzan-Lori Parks masterful new play S#uzan-Lori Park has written her best and most ambitious play yet. If the other triptyches planned to take her Civil War odyssey, <b><i>#When Father Comes Home From the War (Parts 1, 2, 3) </i></b> to the present, are as good, she's sure to win another Pulitzer.<br />
Her theme is ambitious, her writing both lyrical and earthy. Here's her central character, the anti-heroic Her's similistic sum-up of the choice faced when his master offers him freedom if he accompanies him to the battlefield.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: red;">He dangled it in front of me. My Freedom. <b> Like a beautiful carrot. Like a diamond. </b>And those scraps of uniform and the diamond Freedom glittered . . .but while I so wanted to I was still thinking on the bald fact that in his service I will be helping out on the wrong side.</span></blockquote>
Here's a link to my full review: <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/fathercomeshome14.html" target="_blank"> <b>www.curtainup.com/fathercomeshome14.html</b></a><b><br /></b><br />
elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-17624616634362515512014-10-06T05:49:00.004-07:002014-10-06T05:49:56.136-07:00F for metaphors- A+ for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-timeThe thrillingly staged New York production of <b><i> The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time </i>is about a 15-year-old autistic savant. One of his quirks is an absolute belief in truth-telling which<i> </i></b>to his thinking turns even a metaphor into a lie. And so he explains why he feels his teacher's example of metaphors into untruths:<br /><br /> He was the apple of her eye. (Christopher: imagining an apple in someone’s eye doesn’t have<br />anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget<br />what the person was talking about.a pig is not like a day)<br />They had a skeleton in the cupboard. (Christopher: People do not have skeletons in their cupboards)<br /> He was the apple of her eye. (Christopher: imagining an apple in someone’s eye doesn’t have<br />
anything to do with liking someone a lot and it makes you forget hat the person was talking about.<br />
<br />
But though comparison phrases don't get a good review from Christopher, our review of Adam Sharp's performance and this unusual play is an A-plis.<br />
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To read all about it <b><a href="http://www.curtainup.com/curiousincidentbway14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/curiousincidentbway14.html</a></b>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-87883469760465826392014-09-27T05:07:00.002-07:002014-09-27T05:07:29.170-07:00Icebound's dying matriarch is tight-mouthed ad a bear trap<br /> A family of selfish, greedy, mean-spirited rural New Englanders are the core of <b><i>Icebound.</i></b> This play by Owen Gould Davis, Jr. that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1923 is being given a fine revival at the tiny Metropolitan Playhouse. As the play opens the family is gathered at the deathbed of its wealthy matriarch, eager to claim their share of her estate, but without a clue as to <i><b><br /></b></i><b> </b>A family of selfish, greedy, mean-spirited rural New Englanders are the core of<i> Icebound. </i>This play by Owen Gould Davis, Jr. that received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1923 is being given a fine revival at the tiny Metropolitan Playhouse. As the play opens the family is gathered at the deathbed of its wealthy matriarch, eager to claim their share of her estate, but without a clue as to what to expect. <br />
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As her eldest son explains <i><b> <span style="color: red;">she's as tight-mouthed as a bear trap</span></b></i>.<br />
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Here's a link to the full review <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/icebound14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/icebound14.html</a>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-1219503727019715752014-09-23T13:10:00.000-07:002014-09-23T13:10:09.614-07:00a simile trom #ivo Van Hove's latest at #New York Theatre WorkshopIvo van Hove's ingenious stage concept for Ingmar Bergman's classic film about the difficulties of marriage, stays true to the original plot, which includes a touching scene in the female half of the troubled couple's law office where a long married woman insists on a divorce even though it's probably too late for her to find love. She sums up her reasoning with the following simile:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b><span style="color: red;">I think I’m capable of love, but it’s all sealed off from me, like it’s in a locked room.</span></b></i></blockquote>
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To read my review of this unusual production here's a <br />
link:<a href="http://www.curtainup.com/scenesfromamarriageny14.html" target="_blank"> <b>www.curtainup.com/scenesfromamarriageny14.html</b></a><br />
elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-24378133125502088492014-09-05T12:49:00.002-07:002014-09-05T12:51:30.443-07:00A simile from A.R. Gurney's notes for #The Waysside Motor InnIn its own way reading a play can be as interesting as seeing it, especially if the playwright hasn't abandoned notes as so many modern ones have. This was not the case with <b>A. R. Gurney'</b>s 1977 play <b><i>The Wayside Motor Inn,</i></b> the first of the three presented as part of his 2014 Residency One at the Signature Theater Center. The playwright undertook a complicated concept in that he assembled five vignettes and five pairs of characters for a ight in a motel outside of Boston. Since the rooms all look exactly alike, all ten actors commingle their stories on one set. <br />
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Mr. Gurney's script notes detail exactly how he wants to have the audience see the first character on stage, a traveling salesman, settle into his room: "From his inside pocket, he takes his address book and ballpoint pen and places them by his briefcase. Then he opens his suitcase, takes out a partially used bottle of bourbon, and places it by the ice. Then he puts his suitcase on the rack over the closet. He then sums "these instruction up with this simile: <br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: red;"><b>He is like a hunter staking down his campsite at the end of the day.</b></span></blockquote>
For more about the play, read my review<br />
<a href="http://www.curtainup.com/waysidemotorinn14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/waysidemotorinn14.html</a><br />
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<br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-60945129829716521412014-07-21T17:42:00.002-07:002014-07-21T17:42:27.849-07:00 A simile from #Renee Fleming's stage debut at WTFTony winning playwright Joe Di Pietro has adapted Garson Kanin's last play (a flop) to serve as opera star Renee Fleming's stage debut. She does just fine, and Di Pietro and director Katherine Marshall have permeated this new version with lots of musical snippets for Fleming, as well as Douglas Sills her director husband. Not having seen the original, I don't know if this simile in which the middle aged diva retorts to her philandering husband's complaint about spending too much money on clothes as follows:<br /><br />Your public stares at the back of your head. <br /> Mine drinks all this in, like a fine burgundy<br />
<br />
To read my detailed overview with images from the premiere production at Williamstown Theatre Festival, click this link: <b> <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/livingonlovewtf14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/livingonlovewtf14.html</a></b><br />
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<br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-65091650935370818032014-05-29T05:03:00.001-07:002014-05-29T05:03:34.506-07:00She wore her intelligence like an apron<a class="twitter-hashtag pretty-link js-nav" data-query-source="hashtag_click" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MayaAngelou?src=hash">MayaAngelou</a> wore her intelligence like an apron, and her creativity like a pair of work shoes.<br />
--Harvey Fierstein on hearing about the poet/playwright/performer's death elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-22600179007586956942014-05-19T03:30:00.002-07:002014-05-19T03:44:01.612-07:00Linda Lavin's latest monster mom arrives like some terrible hurricaneThe world premiere of <b>Nicky Silver</b>'s play <i>Too Much Sun</i> was written especially for Linda Lavin. Like Rita Lyons of Silver's last play for Lavin, Audrey Langham of <i>Too Much Sun </i>is a flamboyant, razor-tongued survivor who is as needy as she is funny.<br />
Audrey, unlike the once married Rita, is a much married, successful actress. However, she is no more content and, in fact, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, having lost her passion for acting as well as all her money She therefore walks out on the play she's to star in and arrives unannounced at her estranged daughter's house.<br />
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The daughter's reacts to her mother's sudden visit and shocking revelation about her financial status with this simile for the mother's unexpect<span style="color: red;"><span style="color: black;">ed arrival:</span> </span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="color: red;"><b>And then you show up, without warning, like some terrible<br />hurricane, and drop this bomb on me.</b></span></blockquote>
Here's a link to my review of the play: <br />
<a href="http://www.curtainup.com/toomuchsun14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/toomuchsun14.html</a>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-28443912093268524152014-04-30T10:36:00.001-07:002014-04-30T10:36:07.229-07:00Life is a cabaret. . .<b><i>Cabaret</i></b> is as close to perfection as musical theater can get and currently <b>Alan Cummin</b>g is back at Studio 54-cum-Kit Kat Klub in his career-making role as the androgynous, serpentine Emcee.<br /><br />One of the non-stop hit songs is, of course, a metaphor: <span style="color: red;"><b><i>Life is a cabaret.</i></b></span><br /><br />The title of the non-musical adaptation of <b>Christopher Isherwood'</b>s wonderful Berlin Stories, was inspired by this metaphoric line:<span style="color: red;"><b><i> "I am a camera with its shutter open, quite passive, recording, not thinking."</i></b></span><br />Here's a link to my review of the current revival:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.curtainup.com/cabaret14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/cabaret14.html</a></b>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-73363641812759143502014-04-23T13:48:00.002-07:002014-04-23T13:48:09.907-07:00some similes gone missing from Act One the playMoss Hart's <i>Act One</i> is one of the best and most successful memoirs by a theatrical legend ever written. It worked as an inspirational guide for future theater professional, but Hart's personal rags-to-riches story was not limited to theater aficionados. Hart wrote touchingly and with enormous psychological insight. While James Lapine is also a noted man of the theater, his stage adaptation of the book is an enjoyable but flawed entertainment. It retains much of Hart's text but some of the most pungent imagery (especially similes) have gotten lost in translation. To cite just a few of these misplaced gems:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<span style="color: red;"><i>Aunt Kate sailed down the aisle like a great ship coming into port. . .</i></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: red;"><i>The enormity of what I had done settled over me like a suit of mail.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: red;"><i>optimism was again flowing through the theatre like May wine. . .</i></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: red;"><i>I've seen them (plays in previews) go all kinds of ways, but this was like spraying ether.</i></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: red;"><i>He waved me away as though I were an insect buzzing about his head. . .</i></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="color: red;"><i>With each new play the playwright is a Columbus sailing uncharted seas</i></span><br />
<span style="color: red;"><i><br /></i></span></blockquote>
Here too is a link to my review of the play: <br />
<a href="http://www.curtainup.actone14.html/" target="_blank"> </a><b><a href="http://www.curtainup.com/actone14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/actone14.html</a></b><br />
<br /><br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-2478092337685761152014-04-23T05:07:00.000-07:002014-04-23T05:07:15.155-07:00Hedwig's Angry inch is "like a sideways grimace/on an eyeless faceNo contest: The smartest, most exhilarating transfer of a downtown show to Broadway is <b><i>Hedwig and the Angry Inch -</i></b>- and the most amazing performance is <b>Neil Patrick Harris</b>'s performance as the transgendered title character. Here's a link to my review: <a href="http://www.curtainup.com/hedwigbway14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/hedwigbway14.html</a><br />
<br />
And for you fans of figures of speech-- here a few lines with a simile from the show-stopping title song. . .<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: red;"><i> A One Inch Mound Of Flesh</i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><i> With A Scar Running Down It</i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><i> like A Sideways Grimace</i></span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: red;"><i>On An Eyeless Face.</i></span></b></blockquote>
elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-62933128844888511252014-04-07T07:57:00.002-07:002014-04-07T07:57:51.069-07:00Poetic simile inspired title for A Raisin in the Sun<br />
<b><i>What happens to a dream deferred? </i></b><br />
<b><i>Does it dry up<br />like a raisin in the sun?</i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
The
above raisin simile in Langston Hughes' poem "Harlem [2]" inspired
the title and theme of Lorraine Hansberry's groundbreaking play <i>A Raisin in the Sun.</i>
Sadly Hansberry died too young, but fortunately she didn't defer her
dream before writing this wonderful play that currently being given a
wonderful Broadway revival<br />
<br />
<br />
Her script includes this potent simile from the Younger family's matriarch:<br />
<b>"He finally came into his manhood today, didn't he. . . Kind of like a rainbow after the rain . <br />like a raisin in the sun?</b><br />
<br />
Below a link to my review<b><br /></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.curtainup.com/raisinbway14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/raisinbway14.html</a></b>elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-31815879422250052452014-04-03T14:54:00.000-07:002014-04-03T14:54:05.082-07:00A song full of similes from If/ThenThe recently opened new musical, <b><i>What/Then</i></b> is a triumph for Indina Menzel, though reviews of the show overall have been mixed. Though Menzel is the ticket selling draw, she's well supported and one of the show's best songs, "It's a Sign" is sung by LaCanze's characte . It also features some nice some nice similes.<br />
<span style="color: red;"><br /></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: red;">NOW THOSE ARE SIGNS THAT YOU CAN’T IGNORE!<br />IT’S PERFECT AND IT’S PLAIN,<br />LIKE RAINBOWS IN THE RAIN—<br />ONE MORE CLUE<br />THERE FOR YOU<br />DO I HAVE TO EXPLAIN<br />THAT IT’S A SIGN?<br />OH, IT’S A SIGN...<br />LIKE THE LEAVES IN YOUR TEA<br />OR THE CORK IN YOUR WINE!<br />IT’S A LADY’S WINK, A POET’S RHYME,</span></blockquote>
elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-91340836361192782802014-03-19T04:12:00.001-07:002014-03-19T04:12:24.271-07:00 A play about a woman "like a wounded bird in a wood" A World War I widow in David Grimm's new play about the plight of women during that difficult women raised only to be wives and mothers, without self-supporting skills.<br />
Yet, the impoverished woman whose friend uses the following trope to describe her vulnerability. <b>"She's the fragile sort. Wasn't raised to survive on her own<span style="color: red;">. Like a wounded bird lost in a wood</span>."</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
Helena, the woman thus described, is played by Nina Arianda. Though suffering the loss of her husband
as well as financial security, Helena is strong enough to survive
and heal those "lost bird" wounds. The play-- Tales From Red Vienna-- is a world premiere at Manhattan Theatere Club. Here's a link to my review:<br />
<a href="http://www.curtainup.com/talesfromredvienna14.html" target="_blank">www.curtainup.com/talesfromredvienna14.html</a><br />
<br />elyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2520120434039624775.post-35706943425098576562014-03-13T10:04:00.000-07:002014-03-13T10:04:03.451-07:00Simile of the day: Not to go to the theater is like making one's toilet without a mirror <br />
Simile of the day: Not to go to the theater is like making one's toilet without a mirror -- Arthur Schopenhauerelyse sommerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07428161965327741450noreply@blogger.com0