Variety (June 1955)

56 LEG1TOIATI / Clevland, June 28. Healthy advance sales and in- creased opening attendance de- spite one of the wettest Junes in history indicate a healthy season for this area’s four major summer stocks. Musicarnival, which just closed a successful two-week run of “Kiss Me Kate” and opened last night (Mon.) with “South Pacific,” fea- turing Juanita Hall, Mimi Kelly and John Schafter, is running ahead of last year’s attendance, ac- cording to producer John L. Price Jr. “Kate” grossed $38,000 in the Musicarnival tent, now in its sec- ond. year with prices ranging from $1.50-$3.50. “South Pacific” is reportedly sold out for the entire' first week, with the succeeding two weeks al- ready heavily sold.. The tent has hooked five more two-week shows including “Guys and Dolls," “Wish You Were Here” and “Brigadoon ” Chagrin Falls has two Equity spots. Chagrin and Canal Fulton. The latter reports increased at- tendance in its 293-seater. Cha- grin, because of a cancellation of i Diana Barrymore’s opening per- formance in “Glad Tidings,” is showing only slightly better fig- ures for its ‘280-seater. Chagrin’s current bill is “Rose Tattoo.” Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” with Grace Chapman and Charles Macaulay, is at Canal Fulton. Peninsula Players, having com- pleted a run of “Tony Beaver,” is currently offering “Miranda.” Both shows have drawn higher- than-year-ago attendance. Rabbit Run Theatre, at nearby North Madison, opens tonight (Tues.) after A $25,000 expansion and remodeling program doubling the seating capacity to 400 and providing a new stage. Margaret Klump, manager, reports advance sales up, 20% for “Moon Is Blue.” Last of this area’s spots to get underway is the municipally-owned open-air Cain Park, with advance sales reported ahead .of last year. The stock operation in the Cleve- land. Heights Theatre, now in its 18th year, kicks off with “Guys and Dolls” and follows with “Vaga- bond King,” “Where’s Charley?” and “Wonderful Town.” * ^ < Buffalo Area Lights Up . Buffalo,. June 28. Summer stock broke out into its seasonal rash here this week with three openings ticketed. Grand Island Playhouse launched the sea- son with “Where’s Charley?” Also, the Lake Shore Playhouse is offer- ing “Caine Court Martial” and Town and Country Playhouse is underlining “Wedding Breakfast,” Two other barns, the Holloway Bay Playhouse and Niagara Fallg (Ont.) Summer Theatre will open next Monday (4). Valley Forge Opens Philadelphia, June 28. Valley Forge Music Fair, the area’s newest summer show tent, opened last Thursday (23) with “Guys and Dolls.” Seven members of the cast had roles in the original and road companies of the musical. Making his initial stage bow was Tony Galento, former heavyweight prizefighter, Wilbur Evans is the resident director. Marcia Henderson Back Home Williamstown, Mass., June 28. “Time of the Cuckoo” opens the first 10-week season of : the Wil- liamstown Summer Theatre to- night (Tues*) in the Adams Me- morial Theatre of Williams Col- lege. Marcia Henderson, locally-born film-legit-tv actress, is starred. Port Players Resume Milwaukee, June 28. The Port Players, sole Equity stock company in this area, open their 17th season tomorrow (Wed.) ■ with “Fourposter” at the Ocono- mowoc (Wis.) High School. Kingsley Hull is producer, with Richard Via as stage manager and Maynard Samsen as designer. 'Mistress' $3,700, Stockbridge 'Stockbridge, Mass., June 28. “O Mistress Mine” gave the Berkshire Playhouse a nice initial gross of $3,700 last week. This topped last season’s opener, “Late Love,” by approximately $500. Peggy Conklin was starred, Philip Faversham and Ivan Mac- Donald featured in the Terence Rattigan comedy, Faversham^ has been held ovei* for Frederick Knott’s^ “pial M for Murder,” opening last night (Mon). Featured in the meller are Gaye Jordon, William Swan, and John W. Austin; Mayville Goes to Bushkill Pittsburgh, June 28. Francis Mayville, operator of a local semi-pro theatre and ballet school, will manage a strawhat this summer at Bushkill, Pa., in the Poconos, Paul Randig, on publicity, and Patricia Moreell, on promotion, both of whom have befen working for. Mayville in Pittsburgh, have departed for Bushkill to perform the same duties. Quinn Reopens Southbury Southbury, Conn;, June 28. Jack. Quinn will reopen his Southbury Playhouse here tonight (Tues.) with “My 3 Angels.” Spot is one of the few stcawhats hereabouts' retaining a resident company instead of guest stars .or package shows. Tom.Palmer returns as actor- dircctor capacity and Mary Jane Kersey, will be femme lead. BRATTLE TV-PREVIEWS ' ITS ‘HENRY IV’ OPENER Boston, June 28. Bryant Haliday, co-producer of the Shakespeare Festival at the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, opening July 5, has worked out a unique television tieup for the initial show, “Henry IV, Part 1.” Video lookers will see an hour- long preview of the revival over WGBH-TV, next Thursday night (30) at 8. Cutting of the play is de- signed to present as many of the great Shakespeare speeches and famous scenes as possible, includ- ing the Boar’s Head tavern episode and the dramatic interludes be- tween Henry IV and Prince Hal. It’s believed the event will be the first use of tv in this form by a strawhatter. The script .was pre- pared by Haliday, who also appears in the Brattle production, and Thomas Sisson, WGBH-TV pro- ducer, who will also direct the per- formances. Jordan Whitclaw, music manager of the educational tv sta- tion, lias arranged the music. Costumes have been supplied for the show by Brooks Costume Co., New York. The tv cast will feature Jerome Kilty as Falstaff; Haliday as Hotspur; Michael Wager as Prince Hal; and Thayer David as Henry IV. Parks- Brit. Provincial ; Tour Prior to ‘Mutiny’ Larry Parks, who will play the leading role of Sakini, the Oki- nawan interpreter, in the third company of “Teahopse of the Au- gust Moon” going on tour in the fall, has two prior commitments. First he’ll play Lt. Barney Green- wald, the defense attorney, in “Caine Mutiny Court Martial,” next week at the Fayetteville (N.Y.) Summer Theatre. Then he’ll plane to England for a five- week provincial tour of personal appearances with his wife, Betty Garrett. Actor is due back Aug. 12 for the start of “Teahouse” rehearsals. Legft Bits Robert Rapport, general and company manager of the Broadway edition of “Teahouse of the August Moon,” leaves this Weekend for a fortnight’s California and Mexicp vacation, Jim Miller will stand' in as manager of “Teahouse” ... A release last week from Arthur Cantor, pressagent of “Inherit the Wind,” referred to A1 Hildreth, treasurer of the National Theatre, N.Y,, as the ^’genial guardian of the ticket wicket.” No comment. Theatre party agent Ivy Larric planed yesterday. (Tues.) for a month’s vacation in England, France and Italy . , . Reginald Denenholz has been loaned by the Playwrights Co. to work with Barry Hyams on advance-press for the Washington and ,-Chicago en- gagements of/“Skin of Our Teeth,” after the Helen Hayes - Mary Martin - George Abbott - Florence Reed starrer returns from Paris and prior to its Broadway stand. Pat MarshaU has replaced 9 Janis Paige in “Pajama Game” . . . Arthur Waxman has optioned Jay Presson’s “Stars in a Person’s Backyard,” formerly held by Rob- ert Whitehead and more recently by Robert Fryer ... The Biltmore Theatre,, I*os Angeles, sustaind estimated $2,000 damage when a fire plug was snapped off by a runaway auto nearby and water from main flooded the basement and dressing rooms of the “Tea and Sympathy” cast, Betty Lee. Hunt will pressagent the Mike Wallace-Andrew McCul- lough scheduled Broadway produc- tion of “Debut” :, . “Take This Woman,” new comedy by Max Wylie and Milton Geiger, is skedded for Broadway production next fall by Monte Proser, in as- sociation with Cork O’Keefe . . . The Ray Golden revue, “First Edi- tion,” has been retagged “Catch a Star” and is now slated to open Sept. 6 at the Plymouth, N.Y. . . . The installation of an air-cOndi- tioning system at the off-Brfiad- way Phoenix Theatre has been completed at a cost of $30,000 .. The off-Stem Provincetown Play- house, N.Y., has also put in air- conditioning. Marcella Cisney, tv-legit direc- tor and wife of Robert C. Scnitzer, general manager of the American National Theatre & Academy-State Dept. International Exchange pro- gram, Was hospitalized last week in Paris with a slipped disc . . . Rob- ert Thom's “The Sun Dial” is skedded for production by Gene Wolsk and Michael Shurtleff, not Michael Shurtlee as erratumed last week. Both, incidentally, are still on the staff of the N.Y. City Center Light Opera Co. An adaptation of Jean Dutourd’s novel, “Best Butter,” by Sam and Bella Spewack, is planned for pro- duction next year by the Oscar S, Lerrnan, Martin B. Cohen and Al- exander Carson, who are scheduled to be represented on Broadway this season by 1 the musicomedy, “Delilah”'... Eli Basse will do the book for the musical adaptation of the Howard Lindsay-Russel Crouse comedy, “Strip for. Action,” which Howard Hoyt has slated for pro- duction next fall in association with William G. Costin. ‘Fantastic’ Revue Seen Unlikely for London London, June 28. “Light Fantastic,” the new inti- mate revue presented by the Bob tons Theatre at the Fortune last Tuesday (21), features a cast of new names. With one or two ex- ceptions, the material does not measure up to accepted West End standards. Despite the limited capacity of the house, it has little chance. What Price Realism? Boston, June 28. Shirley Booth, in the Hub in connection with the Shirley Booth Festival opening July 9 at the Cape Playhouse, Dennis, Mass., re- called last week how she got curvature -of the spine from “Come Back, Little Sheba.” “I refused to put on 20 pounds because I ftelt that art actress should be able to make herself look any weight she wished,” Miss Booth revealed. “In playing Lola, I stuck out my stomach and wore oversize dresses. When I had to go to the doctor- about something else, he informed me that I had acquired curvature of the spine in the eight months the play had run.” The star said that she’s recovered by taking remedial exercises each day to make up for her had posture as the slatternly housewife in the William Inge play at night. After opening in “The Vinegar^Tree” at Dennis, the actress will appear on alternate weeks in “Time of the Cuckoo,” “My Sister Eileen” and “Sheba.” Then, with perhaps time out for more remedial, exercises, she’ll return to New York, where she’s due to start rehearsals Aug. 31 in “The Desk Set,” William Marchant play to be produced on Broadway by Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr. Wednesday, June 29, 195& Click reception of “Oklahoma” in Paris last week may revolu- tionize the French musical stage, -just as the original production did to Broadway and |he London edition did to the British musical theatre. The Rodgers-Hammerstein musical, put on by the au- thor-producers and sent to Paris as part of the Salute to France celebration this summer, opened June 20 at the Theatre Des Champs-Elysees and will continue through next Sunday (3), It is a smash hit not only critically but with the public. Since French theatregoer taste has traditionally- run to vintage operettas, with elaborate tableaus, familiar schmaltzy trappings and hackneyed-sweet music, the trade was keenly interested in the reaction to “Oklahoma.” One Parisian critic wrote that he felt that he’d been witnessing a revolution, and the general response was more or less equally enthusiastic. As the critic for France Soir wrote, the Parisian public has at last seen why U. S. musicals are famous. The expectation is being expressed in the French capital. that, now that “Oklahoma” has broken- the . ice, -there is likely to he wholesale importation of Broadway musicals, to Paris, just as there has been to London and the British provinces since the original click of the R & H tuner there in 1947. ; , . r -»-- ■ Mornings at Seven (Cherry Lane Theatre, N. Y,) Proscenium Productions (Sybil Trubin. Warren Enters. Robert Merriman) revival n t comedy in three acts by Paul Oaborn. Directed by Warren Enters. Scenery, John Cornell;. costumes, Don Crawford. At Cherry Lane Theatre, N. Y,» June 22, '53; $3.15 top. Cast: Walter .Klavun, Martha Morton, Kate Harrington. June Walker, Harrison Dowd, Tom, Bosley, Gubl Mann, Dorrit Kelton, Richard Bowler. This revival of Paul Osborn’s “Mornings, at Seven” looks like another winner for Proscenium Productions. Originally produced on Broadway during the 1939-40 season, “Mornings” folded after an unprofitable 44-performance run. As presented at the Cherry- Lane Theatre, however, the play has a penetrating quality ^of insight and humor. It’s a charming produc- tion. Sybil Trubin, Warren Enters and Robert Merriman, who head Pros- cenium, have already established themselves^ as a leading off-Broad- way management with productions of “Way of the World” and “Thieves’ Carnival.” • They’ve as- sembled another firstrate cast for this offering, as most of the players have Broadway shows to their credit. “Mornings” isn’t an explosive play, but it’s thoroughly believable in its account of the smalltown life of four sisters, all past 60. The three eldest are married, while the fourth is a spinster who has been living with one of the trio and her husband for most of their married life. The Osborn characters are mild and gentle folk, sometimes a little eccentric, but never to the point of - incredibility. Their problems, anxieties and wants are easily identifiable. Most of them move along at a calm pace, following a line of acceptance rather than questioning. Throughout the three- acter the playwright has-managed to capture the inherent laugh value of various aspects of everyday liv- ing. The players give excellent per- formances, demonstrating an un- derstanding of the characters they portray. Especially standout arc Harrison Dowd, as one of the hus- bands, Dorrit Kelton, as the oldest sister, and G.ubi Mann, as a middle- aged femme’ who finally lands a marriage proposal after a 12-year affair., Other fine characterizations are etched by Walter Klavun, Mar* tha Mofton, Kate Harrington, June Walker, Tom Bosely and Richard Bowler. . John Cornell has designed an impressive set depicting two ad- joining backyards and co producer Enters has sustained a casual at- mosphere in his dual role as di- rector. Jess. * La Ronde Circle In the Square production of coni' edy in two parts <10 scenes) by Arthur Schnitzlcr; English version by Eric Bent- ley. Direction, Jose Quintero; lighting, Klaus Holm; costumes. Dorothy Johnson; incidental music, G. Wood. At Circle In the Square, N. Y., June 27, *55; $3.60 top. Cast: Katherine Ross, Felice Orlandi, Kathleen JHurray, Ralph Williams, Betty Miller, Gordon Phillips, Susan Gliver, Philip Minor, Shirley Crayson, G. Wood. Having created* a stir last year before being permitted to slip quietly into town as a rather harm- less film, Arthur Schnitzler’s “La Ronde” can now be seen in the flesh a Circle In the Square. Di- vided into two parts of five scenes each, with an Eric Bentley transla- tion, it is saved from the essential monotony of its recurrent pattern by some gaily tongue-in-cheek act- ing, especially in its latter phases. In tracing the round of love un- til it comes full circle, the medical- ly trained Schnitzler created a laboratory of human passion in which both lighthearted and serious liaisons could be pitilessly dissect- ed. If tha laughs don’t come as often or as spontaneously as the “comedy” might suggest, it is be- cause the. author is sp frequently wielding a scalpel. This production has delicacy, wit and intelligence, although the the play’s repetition still tends- to become enervating. Jose Quintero’s direction is. precise, but in adopt- ing a slow beat he. has accented many negative values. Ry small touches, however, such as a .gas- light here, a lilting melody there, he' has succeeded in evoking old- world Vienna on the small arena, stage. The actors are generally'what they seem, people searching for a fulfillment they find In now-satis- fying, now-frustrating degrees. Al- though the company is sound 'throughout, it would not seem un- fair to spotlight Betty Miller’s gossamer-like performance of a timorously unfaithful wife, G. Wood's formal portrait of a sensi- tive, philosophical Count, Susan Oliver’s vibrancy as a pert young miss, or Philip Minor’s stylized attack as a rather fatuous play* right Since there is so much of a high order, it’s a pity “La Ronde’s” net effect should be disspiriting. As to the much-touted “immoral” aspects of this round dance, it Is inevitable that some palates would he of- fended. The ancient three-letter word, however, probably remains, commercial. Geor. Stock Review Mother Was a Bachelor Westport, Conn., June 21. Westport Country Playhouse production of comedy in three acts (four scenes) by • Irvins W- Phillips, based on a story by Myna Lockwood, Stars Billie Burke. Staged by Frank Carrington and Agnes. Morgan (advance director, Ben Stroback): scenery and , lighting, Marvin Reiss. At Country Playhouse, Westport, June 20, '55. Tommy Pierce Tommy Halloran Virginia Pierce............ Virginia Gerry Emma Pierce .....Suzanne Jackson .Jennifer Pierce..,. Terry DuHanns Ellen Smith Billie Burke Mr. Frazier Barry Della Fiora Ilarlan Bushileld. George Mclver Charleen Joyce Susan Seaforth George Pierce Donald McCleUand Ronnie Pierce Robert Baines J. R. Bushfield Edwin Cooper Christopher Joyce..... Angus Cairns Here's a mildly entertaining opu» that's e e lti s to. be reversing the trend of tv plays. into legit and films. Whatever else may come of “Mother Was a Bachelor,” it cer- tainly isn’t sturdy enough for sub-* stantial road support, much less Broadway. However, it has a couple of interestingly written characters that might be developed into a video series. Built against a turn-of-the-cen- tury background, the script focuses on a spinster household workhorse and a kndws-all-the-answers mop- pet who could be exploited to good advantage singly or as a team. This Westport production provides what might be called a “comfortable” evening in the theatre. There are some funny, though obvious, lines and - situations, but the general level is for strawhat fare. Billie Burke's performance is in- gratiating, at times even warm. The moppet role- is exceptionally well done*by Susan Seaforth, who played the part in support of Miss Burke in a Coast airing of the comedy last year. Other characters add up to a generally well-rounded cast. Staging provides consistent mo- tion and a fine setting helps ap- preciably to set the mood. Bone. * 'Belvedere' Opens Dorset, Vt» Dorset; Vt., June 28. The Dorset Players have sched- uled 11 plays for their Caravan Theatre season at the Dorset Play- house. “Belvedere”* opened the spot last Friday night (24).