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- January 4, 1982THEATERBEST OF '81
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- Crimes of the Heart. Three sisters, nurtured in Souther gothic
- grotesquerie, induce spasms of laughter in Beth Henley's
- Pulitzer-prizewinning drama.
-
- Dreamgirls. A pearl in the strand of notable U.S. musicals.
- There is dazzling elegance in Theoni V. Adredge's costumes, and
- a young belter named Jennifer Holliday can start, stop and steal
- a show.
-
- The Dresser. Paul Rogers plays a decrepit provincial
- Shakespearean actor-manager; Tom Courtenay, his valet. In
- double image, they are Lear and his Fool--and both are
- magnificent.
-
- Key Exchange. A trio of free spirits have wry and funny flings
- at love in the modern mode. A dandy playwrite debut for Kevin
- Wade.
-
- Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. At 64, she seems to have
- been around forever, and the energy and heart in this show are
- the vibrant product of all she has learned.
-
- March of the Falsettes. This astringent, clever, ethnic, New
- Yorky off-Broadway musical by newcomer William Finn doffs its
- top hat to Stephen Sondheim.
-
- Nicholas Nickeby. Lustrously acted by the Royal Shakespeare
- Co., this is a theatrical experience to be savored for a
- lifetime.
-
- Piaf. The Sparrow's song--brief in ecstasy, extreme in
- pain--was the predawn Paris blues. Tribute in kind was paid
- Piaf in the searing Tony Award-winning performance of Jane
- Lapotaire.
-
- Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You. Christopher
- Durang's damnably funny satire on Roman Catholic education,
- faith and dogma. Elizabeth Franz is a holy terror as a
- schoolteacher-nun.
-
- Sophisticated Ladies. Gregory Hines is a dancing, singing,
- drum-flaying supernova in this stylish tribute to the dandy of
- the jazz kingdom, Duke Ellington
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