The sultry air inside the theater made the audience swelter. (sultry: muggy, sweltering, steamy; swelter: roast, bake, broil) The hero's opening speech seemed to induce torpor rather than suspense. (induce: cause, bring on, produce; torpor: lethargy, sluggishness, inertia) One spectator looked positively lethargic. (lethargic: sluggish, listless, torpid) Another appeared to be in a stupor, his chin resting on his program. (stupor: daze, stupefaction, grogginess) The director blamed a scarcity of good actors. (scarcity: shortage, dearth, paucity)
The painter noticed a different stimulus. (stimulus: prompt, spur, incentive) Whenever someone opened the street door a row of spectators sat up. The heat could debilitate even an attentive listener. (debilitate: weaken, enfeeble, drain; attentive: observant, heedful, alert) A cold drink might offer a palliative; it would leave the source of the problem untouched. (palliative: stopgap, temporary relief, remedy)
Two jammed louvers gave way under a stagehand's broom. Fresh air and a fragment of street music drifted in. At the curtain call the painter looked for the sleeping man. He had been taking notes, and his review praised the second act's remarkable change of atmosphere.