Similes 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  "sex  is a business like kitchenware." 


"O the Dead of Family Wars"  has  oys and girls seeing   their mothers and fathers  as "scraping the strength off selves like bark off trees" or their lives " spread out like caged bird wings" and  "close up  chance  close like fat cardboard books."    

  Here's  the link to  my eview of  the  all too brief  run at City Center   www.curtainup.com/runawaysencores.html



 

Shuffle Along's Wild About Harry"" is "sweet just like cotton candy

 he's sweet just like chocolate candy
Or like the honey from a bee

 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  musical hit  Shuffle Along.    Here's a link to my review of the recently opened  show:www.curtainup.com/shufflealong16.html

A Delicate Ship is enriched by lyrical similes

 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:

 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;  we'd traverse the endless series of days like explorers in a ship made of time itself, its delicate sails moving easily through the churning water.

The volatile  Nate    describes his   constant  unhappiness and discontent  with another lyrical simile:

I  cant accept that my life disappears behind me like a retreating wave, never to be seen again.

To  read   my review see: www.curtainup.com/delicateship15.html

Jim Parson's similistic view of prayer in a An Acto of God

 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:

From my point of view, prayer is
like an emergency services switchboard manned by
one operator who gets 12 million calls a minute.

 Here's a  link to the full  review at  curtainup.com
www.curtainup.com/actofgodbway15.html

Metaphorically speaking a#Outer Critics Awards i

 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. 

  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  You Can't Take It With You:

"Eccentric characters practically crawl out of the woodwork at the family home in #You Can’t Take It With You, and a couple of them crawled into award contention for the first time–in this category. One was 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.

This 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.

  The one below  by   the top name  beneath the title, Keith Carradine,  served  as  a nice  lead-in quote:
 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 softer than a leaf hittin' water.


Here are a few other catchy ones. . .
 You’re as useless as a milk-can in a bullpen --
I’m feeling higher than a lark can sing
Oh what a day!/ I'm feeling flighty as a bumblebee!

 Here's a link  to my review of the show  curtainup/encorespaintyourwagon.html
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Life is like a train!
A roaring rushing train!
You get on at the beginning,
You get off at the end.
  
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 , On the Twentieth Century,    the four tap-dancing  porters  (no wheelies needed back in  1932)  who  introduce the 2nd act with that ditty stop the  exuberant show.

For  more about the show, here's a link to  my revie
wwww.curtainup.com/onthe20thcentury15.html