Generous spirit over greed; Sense of adventure conquers materialism in Thornton Wilder's roughouse farce, The Matchmaker
NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE -- The Matchmaker may be farce, but it's also charged with social relevance. In its delirious evocation of turn-of-the-century life in Yonkers, New York, Thornton Wilder's roughhouse farce reveals something of America's post-Depression mood.Though Wilder's play is set 50 years previous to America's capitalist decline, he has interpolated a genial tug-of-war between financial exploitation and a more generous...
Thanks to the La Jolla Playhouse revival of `The Matchmaker' ... Dolly's back where she belongs
Hello, Dolly, indeed. How nice to see her back where she really does belong -- not in that overblown, overdone musical, but in "The Matchmaker," Thornton Wilder's gently satiric comedy about middle-class vanities and values in 1880s New York. Director Des McAnuff's revival, which launched this summer's La Jolla Playhouse season Sunday night, is a revelation of sorts, though not merely for clearing away the musical treacle spun by...
Matchmaker, matchmaker ... Marriage didn't match up with Chinese traditions
It was not love at first sight for my grandmother and grandfather. A matchmaker introduced them, and they married soon after. Even now, I have romantic notions that my grandparents fell so madly in love afterward that they remained happily married for more than 60 years. Such happy endings have always pointed to the matchmaker's success in uniting couples. That's why the Chinese, the Japanese and the Koreans continue to call on the matchmaker for arranged...
WELL-CAST `MATCHMAKER' SUCCEEDS WITH ENDURING STYLE, TIMELESS WIT
Thornton Wilder's play, "The Matchmaker," is perhaps best known today as the work on which "Hello Dolly," the musical, was based.Is the original play still worth seeing after the the musical has attained such great popularity? Most certainly, if the staging is as enjoyable as the one now being presented by the Kirkwood Theatre Guild. Part of the fun, in fact, is seeing how the two great works differ. As in "Hello...
'MATCHMAKER' PAIRS TIMELESSNESS WITH COMEDY FOR REAL ENJOYMENT
In Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker," two naive store clerks set off on a rare trip to the big city, and they choose the code word "pudding" to signal each other when they're in the midst of a bona fide adventure. Well, that's the code word for the La Jolla Playhouse production of this timeless comedy.Pudding. Pudding. Pudding. Tony Award-winner Des McAnuff directs the production with just the right blend...
