Sketches
A comedy hodgepodge full of sight gags and slapstick, the show was continually rewritten throughout its run to remain topical; its opening scene was Hitler speaking in a Yiddish accent. A circus atmosphere prevailed, with dwarfs, clowns, trained pigeons and audience participation adding to the merriment. The sketches were a "smorgasbord of explode-the-fourth-wall nuttiness:...comedy songs; skits abandoned partway through; cameos by audience stooges; an absurdist raffle; and in a trademark stunt, a man who wandered through the theater hawking an ever-larger potted tree."
As an actress walked the aisles yelling, "Oscar!", another loudly said that was just going to use the bathroom. When this started to overwhelm, an actor started loudly selling tickets to another Broadway show, "I Married An Angel."
Read more about this topic: Hellzapoppin (musical)
Famous quotes containing the word sketches:
“Monday’s child is fair in face,
Tuesday’s child is full of grace,
Wednesday’s child is full of woe,
Thursday’s child has far to go,
Friday’s child is loving and giving,
Saturday’s child works hard for its living;
And a child that is born on a Christmas day,
Is fair and wise, good and gay.”
—Anonymous. Quoted in Traditions, Legends, Superstitions, and Sketches of Devonshire, vol. 2, ed. Anna E.K.S. Bray (1838)
“Turning one’s novel into a movie script is rather like making a series of sketches for a painting that has long ago been finished and framed.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Giles Lacey: I say, old boy, I’m trying to find exactly what your wife does do.
Maxim de Winter: She sketches a little.
Giles Lacey: Sketches. Oh not this modern stuff, I hope. You know, portrait of a lamp shade upside down to represent a soul in torment.”
—Robert E. Sherwood (1896–1955)