Variety (September 1952)

70 UK^ITlllfATE Weilneaday, Septeinljcr 17, 1952 Concert-Buying Public Wants Change; Survey Shows ‘Specials’ Now Staples The concert-buying pubiic wants- « change, according to some local managers. Interest In solo recital attractions Is less than ever, it’s claimed, with group attractions the draw. Season subscriptions are again behind everywhere. Couple of managers have stated that only the group bookings ^ were keeping them in business this season. Reactions are. result of a survey made by Mr. and Mrs. Julian 01- ney, concert-legit operators in White Plains, N. Y., and sparkplugs of the National Assn, of Concert Managers, who spent the summer on an 11-week, 10,000-mile motor trip visiting concert managers in various parts of the country. They report concert subscrip- tions lagging in most cities. Busi- ness generally being good, they, feel, therefore, that present condi- tions only tend to confirm the trend of recent years in the concert field. The public wants a change. It is more selective than ever in its ticket-buying and will not so read- ily make the seasonal subscrip- tion commitments of other years. Tax-Free Competition Also, they found that some man- agers are having great difficulty competing with organizations that are now tax-free—^particularly local orchestras that are buying talent more freely than ever. Some of these groups in smaller cities pay their conductors as much as $20,- 000 or $25,000 yearly, and do not hesitate to pay above-market fees to some artists. This can continue, say the Olneys, only so long as local gentry do not mind the ex- tent of red figures. On the other hand, the Olneys discovered mat one non-musical at- traction being played by local con- cert, managers, “Don Juan in Hell,” had a $13,800 advance sale in one eastern city, $5,500 in a midwest town, and $16,000 in a California city. They concluded that the so- called “special attifactions” of yes- terday will becom^ the staple, or subscription, attractions of tomor- row. Only a very few recitalists, they say, can now be considered major attractions. This change in pjublic taste may be found already in an occasional subscription series such as the May Beegle Concerts of Pittsburgh, long considered one of the coun- try’s top managements. Events for this season Include “Don Juan in Hell”; Victor Borge and Co.; Bos- ton Pops Concert; Robert Shaw Chorale; Ballet Theatre, and “John Brown’s Body,” Except for a few managers who will continue to hold out against “the handwi'iting on the wall,” the Olneys believe that local managers generally will nqy^ be changing the type of their events more complete- ly than ever in another year—es- pecially if they are deficit-shy and care about having a margin in their operations. Organization's that live by handouts, of. course, will be slower to change the character of their schedules, they say. Although subscriptions generally will be down again in the new sea- son for a third successive year, the Olneys believe that ticket grosses will hold up, and may even be ahead of last season. g Atlerborys to Open 6lh Albany Stock Year Nov. 5 Albany, Sept. 16. Malcolm Atterbury and Ellen Hardies (Mrs. Atterbury) will open their sixth season of stock at the Albany Playhouse Nov. 5, in a piece yet to be selected. Season will run 28 to,30 weeks, each show holding the boards for two'“weeks. Tuesday will be opening night, ex- cept for the premiere—delayed a day because of elections. “Home at Seven,” R. F. Sheriff’s mystery play, has been set for the second production, and “Barefoot in Athens.” by Maxwell Anderson, for the third. Couple did not reach, by a wide margin, the $55,000 which they sought last spring as public con- tribution to take the Playhouse Michigan Bam Extends Season With Holdover Augusta, Mich., Sept. 16. Originally scheduled to close last •Saturday (13), the Barn Theatre has extended its season a 13th week with the holdover of its final bill, Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Respect- ful Prostitute.” Sharing the double-bill is “The Orangutang,” an original one-acter by Tom Filer, The Sartre meller was staged by Jack P. Ragotzy, with Betty Ebert as femme lead. Greenwich Yfflage Arena Packing Them In; Polis’ Drama Fills Brief Gap Xheatre-in-the-round, Greenwich Village style, was one of the top off-Broadway draws during' the past summer months. Circle-In- The-Square, the 209-seat round- house located on the site of the old Greenwich Village Inn, has been packing them in via old and new productions and dramatic read- ings. Biggest click for the Circle has been Tennessee 'Williams’ “Summer and Smoke,” which re- opened last night (Tues.) after a three-week hiatus. For the interim booking a new play by Daniel Polis, “Fortress of Glass,” was presented by Irwin Rose. It closed Sunday (14). Polis, a triple-threat man (he also directed and starred), has written a mildly philosophical com- edy of undergrad mores. Polis uses three young collegians in a dorm setting to expound his theories of life, love and lust. There’s plenty of talk and not too much action, but it all adds up to a rewarding evening for those who like their dialog a la Saroyan. Characters are a boisterous bully, a featherbrained femme with whom he’s living, and a young, insecure boy who comes to visit. The gal seduces the boy while her bully- beau is away, but realizes that she belongs to the brute despite their continual battles. It’s a thin thread on which to hang a story, but it gives each character plenty of time to sound off the author’s adoles- cent steam. polis, the director, it seems, didn’t carry much weight with Polis, the actor. His characteriza- tion of the bully was overdrawn and oftimes embarrassing. Alice Winston made the femme believ- able and Buck Henry gave a good account of himself as the young visitor. Stuart Lyons set was effective, Rose is planning tO' bring produc- tion to Broadway but it’ll need plenty of work in all departments before it can hope to attract the uptown mob. Gros. ‘Sun Down' Laying Off For Rewrite, Recasting After last week’s tryout at a Holyoke, Mass., strawhat, “The Sun Looks Down,” being produced by Fred FinMehoffe and James Elli- ott, is laying off for rewriting and considerable recasting. The drama, adapted by Howell Forgy from a Houghton Mifflin prize novel of several years ago, is scheduled for Broadway this sea- son. Elliott is directing. ‘Fig Leaf’ Tryoiit to Open" St. Louis Empress Season St. Louis. Sept. 16. “The ^ig Leaf,” a new farce comedy tried out at Saratoga, N. Y., this summer, will tee off the 1952- 53 legit season Sept. 30 at the mid- town Empress Playhouse, owned and operated by Louis and Joseph Ansell, who also own a chain of indie nabe film houses in the city and St, Louis County. It will be the second venture in legit by the A ns ells. out of the operating red, but the, Ernest Truex and Svlvia Field response was sufficiently strong to will head the “Fig Leaf” cast, convince them another season After its local stand the play will should be planned. Failure to ne- trek to Kansas City and Chicago, gotiale a mortgage, originally' Piece will be produced bv John promised by an Albany bank, has , Huntington and directed by the made the weekly nut a licavy drain . Playhouse’s permanent director, on receipts. i Robert E. Perry. Play on B'way Seagulls Ovc^ Sorrento Charlea Bowden and PhiUp Lanstner (Hi association with Peter Cookson) produc- tion o{ comedy in three agts (seven scenes) by Hugh Hastings. Features J. Pat O'Malley, John Randolph, Leslie Niel- sen, Guy Spaull, Bruce Hall, Walter Brooke, Rod Steiger, Mark Rydell, Bill Daniels. Staged by Hastings and Bowden; scenery and lighting, Melvin Bourne; cos- tumes, Mildred Trebor. At John Golden, N. y., Sept. 11, *52; $4.80 top. Seaman Badger J. Pat O Malley Seaman Sims ("Sprog") Mark Rydell Seaman McIntosh (“Haggis")..Bruce Hall Seaman Turner (“Lofty")..John Randolph Petty Officer Herbert Leslie Nielsen Lt. Commdr. Redmond Guy SpauU Sub.-Lieut. Granger Bill Daniels Seaman'Hudson (“Radar”).Walter Brooke ^olArrrAi%lilcf . . . /Rnrl Since the first play of the fall season is traditionally a stiff al- most by definition, “Seagulls Over Sorrento” isn’t too bad. A mildly amusing but hardly adequate com- edy, it is a current London hit of more than two years’ duration and, as such, is another example of the curiously different tastes of British and American audiences. Despite its frailty by Broadway standards, the Hugh Hastings play was an inviting commercial bet, in- volving a production cost of only about $15,000 and only a $10,500 opertaing nut. On the basis of its late-summer tryout at the West- port (Conn.) Country Playhouse, it was a likely gamble to have at least moderate acceptance in New York and thus do a quick mop-up before the start of the fall parade of new shows. Well, there’s no disgrace in trying, but “Seagulls” hasn’t what it takes. The new entry presumably wasn’t helped by being compared to “Mister Roberts.” A kind of pauper’s yersion of the Thomas Heggen-Joshua Logan smash, it also deals with a group of femme- starved, bored sailors ^pestered by petty official brass, in this case at an experimental station on an island in Scapa Flow, near the Coast of Scotland. But the Hast- ings opus is scant of character di- mension, incident and reality, so it never generates more than mod- erate concern. According to backstage sources at Westport, the author made a few revisions in the script during the tryout engagement, notably in partly restoring a homosexual theme supposed to motivate the small-time villain of the piece, a t 5 Tannical petty officer. Another change is understood to have been the reinsertion of references, per- haps acceptable in England but in questionable taste here, to one of the sailor’s dreams. But “Seagulls” raises one inter- esting point of speculation. One of the objections to “Mister Rob- erts’* in London and among Britons who saw the Heggen-Logan piece on Broadway, was that it not only held an officer up to censure but condoned and even seemed to ad- vocate insubordination against naval authority. But “Seagulls” at first glance goes far beyond “Mis- ter Roberts” in that regard, since the “ratings” (enlisted men) in the Hasting work not only delib- erately disobey orders, but one seaman actually slugs, the petty officer and then flees while the others hold him down to prevent pursuit. The distinction, however, is that the villain of “Mister Roberts” was the Captain of the ship, a com- missioned officer, while the one in “Seagulls” is a petty officer, a non-commissioned one and there- fore actually just an enlisted man. If that distinction is, in fact, the explanation for the difference in the British reaction to the two plays, it seems a significant obser- vation on the contrast between their and our attitude toward of- ficial authority, and possibly a commentary on the different ideas about caste and social distinctions in the two countries. This production of “Seagulls” has been co-directed by Hastings and co-producer Charles Bowden, with an effectively simple setting by Melvin Bourne. The cast, all featured, does reasonably well with the anemic material, with J. Pat O’Malley, John Randolph. Leslie Nielsen, Bill Daniels and Mark Rydell standing out a trifle. Kobe. ‘Wagon’ to Start Rolling Via Columbus Preem Columbus, Sept. 16. “Paint Your Wagon,” refurbish- ed by producers Wolfe Kaufman and John Yorke, with Burl Ives in the lead, opens its coast-to-coast tour at the Hartman here Oct. 2. Production marks first legit show of season in the city. “Call Me Madam,” already an- nounced, is due in under Theatre Guild aegis week of Oct. 27, hside Stutf-Legit t In a heartfelt eulogy at Gertrude Lawrence’s funeral seiwice in N.Y last Tuesday (9), producer Oscar Hammerstein 2d discussed what makes a star, “re-examining,” as he put it, the use of the word “star” in the theatre “In every great theatrical arti^,” said Hammerstein, “there is am- bition and industry. The qualities beget craftsmanship. In every great theatrical artist there is the capacity for human understanding and sympathy In a star—in a true star of the theatre—there are all these things ... and one thing more. And that one thing is mystic and in^ tangible It cannot be learned or imitated. It belongs to its owner and to lio one else. It is a kind of glow that emanates from only one. and communicates itself to all. It is just as unearthly as the glow of a heavenly star, and just as hard to explain. ..t. * . “Gertrude had this light. It had nothing to do with technique, al- though her’technical equipment was considerable. It had nothing to do with physical grace, although no trained dancer could move more grace- fully than she. I think it had something to do with a great, warm love for the world, and an eagerness to have the world love her. And so she harnessed this burning desire, and drove it through many theatres until she learned the shortest and most direct ways to the heart of an audience. She cheerfully dedicated her own life to a series of elabo- rate and glorious Imitations of life—imitations that were just a little better, a little brighter, than life itself. This was her fun. This was her mission. This was why she gave herself to us. God bless her for it.”' Several out-of-town theatre operators are among the backers of “Country Girl,” the Paula Stone-Mike Sloane tourihg edition of the Clifford Odets drama, costarring Robert Young and Nancy Kelly. They include James Nederlander, of the Cass, Detroit, $1,200; Hugh M. Becket, Metropolitan, Seattle, $600; John G. Celia, American, St. Louis, $1,200; D. R. Hanna, Jr., of the Hanna, Cleveland, $1,200, and Gabriel G. Rubin, of the New Nixon, Pittsburgh, $600. Other investors from the trade include pressagent Joe Flynn, $600; manager Albert H. Lewis, $300; playwright Edmund Trzeinski, $600; theatrical accountant Charles H. Renthal, $600, and the show’s general manager, Harry Zevin, $300. Miss Stone, her producer-husband Sloane and Zevin are general part- ners in the venture, which is capitalized at $30,000, with provision for 25% overcall. Louis Dolivet, French newspaperman and former husband of actress Beatrice Straight (Mrs. Peter Cookson), whose seven-year-old son was drowned last week (7) in a pond near the Cookson’s farm near Armonk Village, N. Y., was unable to obtain a visa to fly to New York for the funeral because of alleged pro-Commie activity before the war. He was editor of the United Nations World in N. Y. Dolivet denied the allegations. Leon Jouhaux, veteran Socialist labor leader and founder of “Fighting Democracy,” a new French peace org of which Dolivet is assistant secretary general, stated In Paris this week that if Dolivet was in the least pro-Communist, he would not be woidcing with him. Leonard Sillman, who received $1,125 salary ($250 a week) during rehearsals of his production of “New Faces of 1952.” has taken none since then. When and if the show earns a profit he is due to share it, although he was forced to dispose of part of his interest in return for a production loan from Lee Shubert prior to the opening last May 16 at the Royale, N. Y. The producer owns only a minority slice of New Faces, Inc., which gets $300 a week royalty from the revue for the use of the title. The $250-per-week pre-opening salary, as provided for in the limited partnership agreement, covered his supervisory work on the production. Production of “Mr. Pickwick,” which opens tonight (Wed.) at the Ply- mouth, N.Y., recalls that at least one other play based on,the Dickens novel has been presented in New York. That was “Pickwick,” adapted by Cosmo Hamilton and Frank C.' Reilly and produced by the latter, which opened Seht. 5, 1927, at the Empire and playing 72 perform- ances. The new play, “Mr. Pickwick,” has been adapted by Stanley Young and is being produced by the Playwrights Co. It had a brief run last spring in London. Sobol On .Good Will Continued from pag;e 69 for the matinee of Sept. 3. This was about three weeks away but I yelled, “hold them, I’ll mail you a check immediately.” Came Sept. 3 and unfortunately my wife was laid up and couldn’t possibly go to the theatre. “Well, we’ll have no trouble returning the tickets be- cause they’ve been sold out for months in advance,” I said. I phoned the boxoffice only to be told there wasn’t a chance of re- deeming the tickets, as for some reason file bottom suddenly fell out of “South Pacific’s” business and they had a rack full of tickets which they were having trouble selling. How this great transition from nothing to plenty came about the treasurer couldn’t explain but was adamant about, the whole busi- ness. Now, both Dick Rodgers.and Os- (;ar Hammerstein know that I am fully aware of all the vicissitudes of the theatre and know that there comes a time in the life of a show when it is tough to part with a buck. But if Mike Mok’s state- ment in a recent N. Y. Sunday Times article is correct, giving the gross for the New York company to date as $8,000,000 and the Civic Light <S)pera’s statements of its glowing successes to say nothing of sellouts for the past two seasons are to be taken qs truth, surely they could make the grand gesture of keeping faith with the public, establishing a bit of good will and doing a public service particularly as the sum total would have amounted to $12 (I gladly waive the agency fee). Recently the television networks found the conventions running much longer than anticipated but kept faith with its public at a price of $5,000,000. Incidentally, the Civic Light Opera recently announced a return engagement beginning Oct. 3 of Shaw's “First Drama Quartet” and once again (before Sept. 3) I, in my naive way, phoned about tick- ets and was told that even though this was not on the subscription list, subscribers receive first ptef- erence and as a result “no tickets are available for any performance.” I hate to think “Television is your best entertainment”—to coin a phrase. Eddie Sobol (NBC Producer). Kaycee Preps Busy Legit Season; ‘Pacific’ Reprise Kansas City, Sept. 16. “Holiday on Ice” bows into the Municipal Auditorium for a six-day run Sept. 24, to start the indoor show season. It’s set by the John Antonello office. Antonello also has a road com- pany season set for the Fox Alld* west Orphoum, but will have a late start unless some dates now being mulled can be worked out. “South Pacific” will return for a 10-day stand in the Orpheum Nov. 12, to be followed by “Bell, Book and Candle,” Nov. 24. Cornelia Otis Skinner brings her “Paris ’90” in for three days, beginning Dec. 4, and Phil Silver ami “Top Banana open Dec. 8. Some pop music and dance units also are being brought in by the Antonello office. Jose Greco an(l j Spanish Dancers make a one-night stand in the Music Hall Oct. 16> Eleanor Morrison, publicity di- rector At "WCOP, Boston, and for' merly in charge of Boston U.’s puh- , licity bureau, named assistant to Dorle Jarmel, pub relations of N. Y. Philharmonic-Symphony-