Variety (September 1952)

so UBOITI^IAl'E SeptomW 3, 1952 Plays Out of Tows , . Tlitf* Vii^^liiiliM l)0ttle-hi.t^ttg ,?tctor»s comeback and ^ Au^ 26 the tender-tougb .reUtlonshij? of so of man, wife and director is basically comeCy!arJ! S%0 Ju%1 leanest, good. It'S the tyi>e of play Which adapted from either draws Otit good acting, if the talent is there, or can magnify nedon, Va., Aug. 55, this' Case, the play i*cveals Sets? »Iar)c Stathaw; choreograidn'* «rd Chase; HahtUta. Barter Theatre, Ablii_ ^ * *52. « * . . Owen Phimps Robert Young as an actor Of range —;]Same holds for Pane ••■"■.■.'.■.■■.■.'."Kink and'ouality. - , , ChMU. an i»ur.‘" curie. BoUi ar« exceUent. As for * John. hSw Nancy Kelly, there's never been Moiiv WoodSjmrt any doubt as to her statime. • Bai-lender tS Fa^? Miss Kelly dearly dominates the 1st, Cowboy^ Jd^vW Cro^s pl^y in a powerful .portrayal, _As l?d Cowboy sen the actor’s terribly tired wife, Miss vi?ffin?S^ lJwu Kelly seems the anchor in ^hich Cbarfitmlyiyrj^a sense of stage .:::: *.*.: *. : ;!»orothy l^v ern security. At the start, for example. Wilmington, Sept. X 'Playhouse, local legit spot, "ap^ pears headed for its iaiost active season In many years. Under its ‘I'liTe Hivar Ubta Edinburgh, Aug, 23, and ideas, though ably acted by a sound cast. Chances of anyth*ng Tenncnt FroducUoiiw (by »rt»M<*ment .f- ruii Seem remote, with Stephen Mitchell)’ prcMshtetibn of despite the excellent second act, drunui in three u^ctw by< ChmrUw Morgan. • Gor/i St»w Faw«U Brown, Paul ficoAcld. Di- rected by JtUchael Macowan. SettlniT, Alan Tass; costume*. Motley. At I/yceum The- atre, Bdinburih, AnS, 33, *52. . new policy of going all out for colfmi,^wyimrton*^”!.‘MVci^^^ hookings'as a company and civic on Charle* Dicken* novTiraya^ter by cultural project, the duPont house Valerl* Barton »mlyn William*. Stars wmiarns. At Ly. bTthus fai. liked up five ahowa w*t >">ui.urah. Aua. Bl«ailc House EdinbiU’gh, Aug. 28, E^nburah FestiYal Society presentatio* of dramatic readini^ in three acts, based both Young; as the old actor, and Clark, as the young director, have opposite, respective flaws. Likely due to his many years in films xf f ?T pan \ \Yolm Holland Fiddler ^ ,... .Tom McKeeban .V...... Robert GalUco Musician ...... •• Hai*tv»i*a Bensdcer Mrs. Tajdor Farr A Young Girl * "man Jraif - , , , , 1st Child Kenneth price Young is guiRy, of Underplaying at 2nd Child point while Clark is hard- boiled and loud-mouthed without Both improve immediately, ho'Cir- ever, when Miss Kelly enters the * ^ MW .* At.. 9 ... _ _ through la,te September and month Fierre chassaien* Marcel Foncin of October. It offers imusual terms, plus ttie use of a heavy mail- jf gyer one single act made a ing list and publicity and advertis- play, this is it. Acts one arid three Ing media, of this new play by novelist Season opens with the tryout of ^h/vItaj^ sloWw dolxocr^tc xftjjC| xiic nrst ftct “Time of the Cuck^» Sept 25 27, exciting flash- and thereafteroffeis a tryout oi ,„„v» AnSo/vAia r^p «nf +«,« +h<» . Margaret Penr, who adapted and staged the Owen Winter classic, has combined the Wister l^SH^Se and ®^tion with Ewderic em^ scene, in youngs case, tnis oc- ton painting inmg(^» , casions a curious parallel. For the «ntive. exciting show, it snouia ^ ^ a.,.,!., «• . 4;v.,.y.frkv> hv-Sncftnu In Young's case, this oc a curious parallel. For th< native exciung juuw cifitm-rdiV- Play tells of a ’ director bringing ®JJ.th« wint almost-destroyed talent of cuit it.s destmed in an ^ happens on uary, February and March next Young’s own emergence vv +11#^ Wis- from the film-acting cocoon in his , Miss Perry has foRowed the Wis ter novel in .essential detau Bnd recaptures the acting spark, has arranged scenes witti a sure sense of showmanship. The story, published 50 years ago, laid down formulas for’ the cowboy. western with ingredients that have never been improved on,- he clutches it like a warm memory, which likely it must have been.. Miss Kelly’s scenes with Clark are also socko. Only a mite more shading would help Clark’s char- acterization,* since the inner, vol- Story is told cano of his personality erupts too view of Wister, named Dude in the frequently. Otherwise, Clark’s script, because Miss Perry was for- fight-fisted Vitality and dynamic bidden by his heirs striding manner are perfect for name in the play. String with the role. Dude’s arrival in Medicine Bow, Remainder of the cast has little Wyo., to visit a friend s ranch, to do. * Some minor roles could thure follow a stagecoach smashup, stand improyernent, however. In poker game brawl, boarding house particuly, .Maggie Magennis seems horseplay, wagon trip through ^e j^ss thcTOung, silly actress than a mountains and a schoplhouse Sat- caricature of a frightful adoles- urday night. There’s the pretty cent. As the proi^ucer, Roger Cole school-teacher from the east for a could hit harder, and the play- heroine; and for/hero, the cowboy wright, Norman Sturgis, might from Virginia who saves her from tone down the naivete. David the river. VilUah Is a hlack-dyed Sheiner'.s stage manager is a good cowhand fiUed with hatred fpr the 'hero, Horse-stealingr posse chase and lynching, and final gun-play on -Medicine Bow streets, complete It’s fitting for Emlyn Williams, now established as a great Charles Dickens • recitalist, to visit ■ Edin- burgh for the Drama I^estival with his latest* tour-de-force, a solo reading (from me''mory) of the well-loved Dickens novel, “Bleak House.” Dickens himself had many J.9 ^ ^ A. ^ 'll-*! 9 X!. J.l. • ^#1 ^ Km ‘‘tHa «;hrike” (tentative). f u» i iv: ™s is a daring presentation for of “Gvpsies W convincing fashion. ^ But the williams, His first Dickens as- 25*^^talaa 17’’ compensates ip intense, jignment was reading pieces from High Hats, Oct. 23 2 , ^ - thriling drama. • various hooks, as the novelist him- (tentati'^), Oct, 27-29, readl g Morgan has a novel of the same seH attempted. Here, after 10 "Green Pastur^, title,^''but stresses this is an inde- months of preparation, WiUiaras ing of “John Browns pendent work. ■ He first thought'of appears in his own adaptation of 2-3, and “Oklahoma,' April lfi-17. the story iii terms of theatre, but a single hovel, “Bleak House,” and Number of others jire bemg nego- niade the .novel a study for the tlated. play, structure of the drama hgv- Gpnerallv a Spllt-wcek spot, the mg eluded him for some time. PlSZuS may wo^ out a deal First and third acts are set in the rnmmunitv Hershey Pa., garden of an English country house ^n”lntire ^eek with the id Gloucestershire, where a young -himself in Dickens, to share an entire w _, foreign American, Philip Sturgess, is stay- Williams makes, the character* latter fi^dse ing with a British officer and his come to life and presents the story the first half of the wife. With both, of these the in a fa’shion that doesn’t demand it generally plays name bands ana ^^j.foan has shared an adventure too great knowledge of the novel, various other non-legit atvactions years, which is the His silences are dramatic. Cur- on weekends. It’s figured thi^ botn su^^ject of the second act, a flash- tain rises to reveal an empty stage theatres would benefit by offering to a granai-y hear Toulouse lit up focusing on a simple read- legit managements a sort of “i^ack- where Allied prisoners of war were age” full week between* the two bidden 'while escaping from France towns. '' through the lin^ »• runs the gamut of some 35 char- acters, comic, grave, gay and ec- centric. It’s a remarkable piece of acting and memory-training. Williams has obviously Immersed ing desk. Slowly and remarkably like Dickens in his beard and makeup, the British' thesper walks onstage, pauses, bows, places his white gloves on the desk, adjusts his red geranium in buttonhole, sees that the water-glass is at hand. tlie action. Conflict between Dude’s firstrate and the heroine's ideas of justice, and the cowboy handling of jus- tice, is well defined and resolved with. credibility in Miss Perry’s adaptation, . ' Miss Perry has organized the play into .17 scenes with fluidity and imagination. Drawing on Remington paintings for figure 'groupings as well as for stage sets, she makes an original statement job, with the right blend of pa- tience and , exasperation. Lee Strasberg’s staging and Boris Aronson's lighting and sets are In sum, a play with wallop that should do well on the road and perhaps is strong enough even to attempt a New York revival. Don. river line. The duPonts, who’ve had an-ex- Having set the scene in the first hibit for many years in Wilmington act, showing the characters in their to show their contribution to such in 194^^^ .. .......u, fields as mining, farming, manufa^ tense exeiteraem and of be- f^kes a look at the tome, opens turing, etc,, are planning one this again, then slowly season to demonstrate what they ve begins his recital. After some read- done for entertainment, particu- ®®^*" ing he launches into dramatic ex- larly legit. Material for the show, nance in cerpts, becoming each character lu including sketches, model sets, In charge of the escape linejs a turn. * nrnni Atr U being borrowed from beautiful, red-haired younff French- Desk used is an exact replica HrrtaHwiiv nroducers woman, Marie Chassaigne, who not -of the one Dickens used for his .V « •Di«.ir>,m,cA TYinn- with the prison- performances. It’s a neat, simple Bill Doerflmger, * ers’ fears but the revengeful timid- 30b, with raised rest for left arm ager, and Charles E. L-rowieyj 01 j|.y ex-professor father, and a ledge for the water-gla.ss the duPont ad department m pierre Chassaigne, who pitter-pat- charge of the theatre, were in^New up below into the York last week to dicker for book- granary with much suspicion-of all. ings and obtain items for the ex hibit. The Cat In the Cage Atlantic City, Sept. 2. Ada V. Fenno 5e Gianni Pitale produc- tion o£ comcdy-drama in three acts (four scen'es) 'by Howard-.. Richardson and •KXiirTvrA^alTlnlfv between Wister 1 Frances Goforth. Directed by Richardson. •abClUt tne attlnlty oeiween Quarterdeck and Remington, Her writing is done with minimum of words and Theatre, Hotel Morton, Atlantic City, Aug. 25; *2.40 top elrillfiil rtf midienee imatf- Sadie (jhldens Essif Jane .Coryell with skillful use/Ot audience imag chiders... LUUari Little ination and participation. Choreography by Richard Chase, folk-dance authority,; i* int^lJrated I <;oferth . 4 i<a ~ 'm '' L V**«a a.-»*•*•••• Fraxh into action of the play and never Lavada Flower* Jane Spwrkfl supplants action or' crowds the R;nle Camahan., stage. Sets make use of a back- cmystai Ga bUeiie Michaels ‘drop screen o.n Which paintings in . .i. , the style of Remington are project- As their final offering of their ed from the rear. They are par- second season, the Pleasant Mill .ticularly effective in the wagon Players have picked an.original ride and lynching scenes. three days here in At- Owen Phillips, Barter director lantic, City, add three days at their land actor,Splays Dude with under- •. , i.,. standing of the character of Wister * The Cat in the Cage” is another and successfully sets the tone of of a long line of vehicles using the the play. His lines are wholly <}eeP. ^Snorant” rural south as ■Wister'.s, taken net only from the Rs locale. -Its-action through tliree novel, but from Wister letters as^ acts is on a single set, the mam well. Woodrow Romoff gives the room of a smalUiotel in rural Bes- ■'outstanding performance of the semer City, N.C. ■ play as Trampas, villain of the Here two elderly sisters try to .piece. He plays with minimum of reshape’the lives of their niece, a gesture, and all gestures meaning- southern belle who caught her J Aldrich, Myers Continued from paffc 49 and white gloves. Entire book, of course, is not read. Actor has cut the novel into 125th of its original length. He breaks up performance into three parts, with two intervals of 10’ minutes each. “Bleak House,” after a London run, will then be taken to America by Williams, for a 20-week tour starting in January, under Sol Gord. Lei^t Followup Three prisoners already in the granary, awaiting a fourth, are a rather frightened young Britisher, well played by Dick Frewer; a good - looking, poetry - spouting young British major named Lang, If,.™.!.®.- . f been decided, Marie Chassaigne role with realism “A Girl Can Tell, ^ a new comedy and convincing accent,' while Sco- by F. Hugh Herbert, author of field is the American-to the letter, “Moon Is Blue,” is still unfinished, .brusque, brisk and metallic-spok- Moreover, the playwright has been en), new arrival turns out to be a ill, so there is no certainty when calm, pipe-smoking English naval the script will be ready. Aldrich 8c commander, Julian Wj-hurton. Myers are no longer interested in a ‘Over three scenes in this act, the tour or New York revival^f “The tpsion is gradually built up, with ^ . Guardsman,” in which Jeannette the elderly professor suspicioning c a n a that. includes “Student MacDonald and Gene Raymond that some spy may .be found among Prince,” “Show Boat” and similar starred on the road two years ago. them. In. the darkened granary, perennials, \vas given via the re- And the two French plays, “La just before midnight, the Ameri- ception accorded the breakin or Duchess D’Algues” and^“Lprsque 5 the'latest version of the national I’Fnfant Parait ” which Mvers re- gently, dropped ‘by the major, company here. ^ , hrouXt bicfc from Paris pramaUc point of play cornea a In Ita fifth local stand (musical t?.nslatlo?f and nrobXy ..“inutes later when Marie opened here originally a decade ^ “ piobawy granary, then ago as “Away We Go"), show drew adaptation. ^ . rasps out to the naval commander a brand of playgoer, many of whom Michael and Fay Kanin, who re- the command: “kill • that man,” were seeing the inside of the Snu- cently returned to the Coast after pointing to the young major. He ‘ ^ a European trip, have several play dies in an instant as the curtain prospects for A3cM consideration, falls. but nothing will be done about Third act, bringing us back to Oklahoma (SHUBERT, NEW HAVEN) New Haven, Aug. 29. Evidence of the fact that “Okla- homa” vriU eventually wind up m that branch of theatrical _Ameri- .ful. Supporting parts are excel- lently done. Barter producer Rob- ert Porterfield plays the Virginian. Miss Perry’s “Virginian” has in- teresting possibilities for Broad- . 'U'ay. Ande. The I’oimtry l*lrl San Diego, Aug, SO. Paula Stone X Mike Sloane pve.senta- tii»n of drama in two acts (eight soenc.s) b.v Cllttord Odets. Stars Robert Young. biaiic.Y Kelly, Dane Clark. Directed by , - . Lee Strasberg. Sets and lighting, Boris offer the scene aS it might have * Ai*ih‘n 4 iAn A 4 Riiaa Suit 1 .. ^ ^ . Yankee sailor groom fresh from, the Navy, as well as mould, the af- ■fairs of their boarder and the girl next door. Situations resulting are good for many laughs. The play has a fair plot with an unexpected, surpris- ing ending, the Yankee getting out of a bad spot with nothing more than a bellyfull of .“southern hos- pitality,” thanks to the plots of the dominant sister. At several points, the- authors hert for the first time. The sum total of the reaction was highly enthusiastic. Cast-wise, troupe is on a par been, and then use a narrator to bring it back as it really happened. Canning the top burdens arc Gcorgl Rillth Aron.son. At Russ Auditorium. S;(U Diego. Aug. 29. '52; $4.20 top. Beni’.e Dodd Dnne C)ax«k liMrry David Sheiner Paul Unger Norman Sturgis Jane Coryell as the deter- Naney stoiidard Maggio Magennis mined aunt, and Lillian Little, her & tempered hymn^singlnn sis- RithardlH. banner ter; Sally Moffet, (daughter of Er- nest Truex) as the southern bride. Road tour of the Clifford Odets and John Glennon as her Yankee, vcshlcle appears a certain click slow-moving sailor. Allan Sues, as after an auspicious three-perform- the native son hoarder; Jane ance breakin at Russ Auditorium Spark.s, as the belle next .door; neve. Audience response was most Frances Goforth, who helped au- entluisiastic. This being a town thor the piece; Frank- Hammerton, , where Hollywood glamor cuts lit- as her spouse, and Gabrielle Mi- tJe ice—the 12o-mile distance pro- chads as the girl of all work, com vidmg a good perspective—the plete the cast, heavy mitt was not out of awe for As cast here, .the flavor of the film names, but for sound acting ann cfi^Annr them until the producer-author the postwar period" and the English '^/Hi couple move east in the fall to country house, carries the cxplana- wj^h about 5^50 dlstriDu make their permanent residence, tion. The imval commander has Tn°^atter division, Mrs. Kanin, whose ^‘Goodbye, My married Marie, the American is Henderson and^^ Ralph Fancy” was. a hit several seasons wartime friend*, fIw® in their* respective ago under the management of bu the memory of that midnight ^owe A8cM and her husband, has a part- Ga?? elided as^ the peddler; Judy ly written new script, Kanin has awL Toulouse remains, fits in the^Gertie Oum- authored a new Rdstoration-style h^iveYoldS othe? what t^^^^ mings ?ole. Other newcomers udio comedy and a new, modernized that thi? contribute okay support are Vmtor "treatment of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of was killed was Innocent 2nd had^So Reilly, Jean Bledsoe, Charles Hait the People.” Since i^thur Millert Unk rtth th? adaptation of ,tlm latter was a re- complex is present, and will out. cent failure on Broadway, the new Also at the country house is a version is not a prospect for pro- young girl, Valerie Barton, who duction for some time. shows her friends a pohtograph of her brother, killed in the war. and a -strong production. Odets’ drama concerning the south (by reason of accent) was missing too much. There were lapses that paring and re-writing It and Anita Berman. i Among the vets, Mary Mario as Aunt Eller; Victor Griffin as Will Parker; Alfreil CibcllI, Jr., as Ju Fry, and Jacqueline Hanielii as Ado _ *1 Pff 'last from • ’Whore they left must cure. Much is to be done be** down^towards^hc^^end^^with*o^^^ .season.'o'ther previous Pl|^y®5f AT fore Broadway can even be men- interest centering elude Owen Martin, CharlM Scot^ tloned. Generally speaking, the quS^ •^hethS voun^^ John Addis, Margery Bed^doR. play h'as many bright spots, the Marigene Addis, Marquita Living plot Is fair, .nd Ite cost of etagih* "tTr’etm ballet in which “iTfor the title, the eccentric S?oth‘e"r‘;“’“‘ Aunt Essie found that God had re- virffinia .4.- moved her canary and placed a ^2ie British black rat in its caffC Wherever nuusn stage, is suitable as — Esste 1^ there Is the cage and the Valerie. Top rate study of player. Cihelli. , caged ck, until Aunt Sadie causes chassSine ^ Production has been refur^is it to get away. As Groom Carnahan ^ given by Marcel with new sets and _gUouse joyfully make.s his escape from his ^ ’ t. ^ placing those i®®i'.pT«?nHiiotion of “cage” for another tour with Uncle Piece has too much clash be- fire last season. to Sum’s Navy, the cat is found, and tween exciting action and lack of overall setup is again creau*-. brought back to the cage from action to succeed. It’s an incon- Jerome Whyte. Petei which it was removed, Walk, gruous contrast of play of drama wielding the baton. JLn xne uream dancers take over for players, t the first time in its decade ex- istence, role of Jud Fry .b®, acted and danced by a sing