Variety (December 1957)

76 LEGITIMATE PfatlETY Wednesday, December 4,’ 1957 (ADVERTISEMENT) Legit Review ORPHfltJS DESCENDING (Gallery Theatre^ $3.20 Top) This Tennessee’' Williams wdrk Is first-rate theatre, a play in which everything seems to click into place through the work of director Edward Ludlum and a superb cast. As the West Coast -premiere, it should keep the boxoffice busy, for [ some time, particularly since it looks like a good motion picture prospect. j It’s typical Williams — clever, | sexy and earthy. It’s depressing Imagery of a" small southern town, and' it offers substance to its char- ! acters, making them sounding boards one - against the other. Lud-' lum. molds that substance with feeling, bouncing action and. re- . . action Into well-integrated whole. In this Paul Leavitt-Ted Thorpe production, of the 17-year-old play. •’Orpheus’’ takes every advantage of theatre-in-the-round and vice- versa, Every player acts at every moment.. and the Whole thing is live watching a tennis match, try¬ ing to grasp all surrounding char¬ acters. “Orpheus” tells of a young man just .turned 30. who moves to a. Mississippi town to settle down, leaving a playboy’s life behind. Go¬ ing to work in a dry-goods store for a youngish woman- Whose old¬ ish iiusband -is dying, the man is caught sllcklt In circumstance and : his own doings. His relations with the townspeople all lead up to Wil¬ liams’ attempt at classic tragedy. With boyish philosophy, is excellent and natural; always maintaining' the right tempo in a fast-moving role. Fred McConnell to Quit As Cleve. Theatre Head ’Cleveland, Dec! 3. . Frederic McConnell' head of the , Cleveland Play‘House, for the last ; 36 years, will retire from active management of the 42-year-old resident repertory theatre at the end of this season. K. Elmo Lowe, how producing director, will be¬ come executive director beginning next fall. Both McConnell and Lowe came here in 1921 to build the theatre into a nationally kno\vn institution with three auditoriunls. McCon¬ nell will step into new post as con¬ sultant director. in charge of spe¬ cial projects. Lowe acted and staged shows in New York during the 1930’s, during leaves of ab¬ sence, besides directing “Kid From Cleveland” for republic pictures, and industrial films. The Playhouse has a profession¬ al but non-Equity company. RUSS BALLET IN PARIS iteris, Nov. 26. First extra-Soviet appearance of Republic of Georgia ballet dancers will open at Alhambra, Paris, Dec. 19 for threeweek stay. Company of 100 dancers,. singers and musicians from Tifiiz; will ap? pear under sponsorship of Fernand Lombroso, Paris impresario who has brought Moskvine, Bolshoi and other Soviet troupes to France be¬ fore. ‘Anger Was Tough ’ 5 S 5 Continued, from page 73 who has made a numbier; of ap¬ pearances in London and been a highly regarded leading player for several seasons at the. Stratford (Qnt.) Shakespeare Festival. The show is the first Broadway starring assignment for late Osgood Perkins’ son Anthony Per¬ kins, but he has become a hot film performer .since making his New York stage bow three years ago as successor to John Kerr in the role of the confused youth in “Tea and Sympathy.” Perkins is under con¬ tract for “Angel” until? nekt July 1, and it’s figured he’ll be . tough to hold after that, . as he’s now in greater demand for pictures. How¬ ever, his part in the Frings-Wolfe play may not be too difficult to cast when he leaves. Although the Screen rights to the original novel were bought by Paramount nearly 10 years ago, “Angel” has never been filmed (more or less the same is true of Wolfe’s other literary works, all of which have been bought for pic¬ tures, but present untii-now in¬ surmountable adaptation prob¬ lems). It’s possible that, with the click of the stage play, Paramount may decide to buy Mrs. Frings’ adaptation as the basis for the screen version. . “Angei” -was, capitalized for $125,000; with .' provision (which was not exercised) for 25%. over¬ call. Bloonigarden was unable to raise all the coin, and finally brought in Theatre 200, Inc., a syndicate of 200 individual in¬ vestors, mostly Pittsburgh resi¬ dents, with an original bankroll of $500,000 and headed by Edward Specter. In return for a $46,425 stake, Theatre 200 gets co-pro¬ ducer billing, h pro-rata backer share and a slice of the manage¬ ment end of the profits. The show cost about $125,000, earned a modest operating profit on its capacity-attendance tryout and represents ah opening-night investment of about $120,000, Po¬ tential capacity gross at the 1,162- seat Barrymore is $40,000 at a . straight $6.90 top, and' the break¬ even is approximately $23,000. Merrick Angels Continued from page 73 and “Look Back in Anger.” They have $90,000 each (including 20% o.vercall), representihg 12.5% shares, in the former, and $10,000, representing 12.5% in the latter. Brown has a $23,600 stake 7 in “Ro¬ manoff and Juliet,” representing 14.75%, and Goldman has -$25;200 representing 15.75%. Both backers are expected to go i along with Merrick on his two ad¬ ditional show’s, this season, he ; scheduled imports of “The Enter- ; tainor,” starring Laurence Olivier, ‘ and “La Plume de Ma TantO,” a * Parisian-originated revue. MIAMI TICKET BROKER TO HANDLE N.Y. SHOWS Miami, Dec. 3. Sherman’s T h e a tfe Ticket Agency, Which has been operating here oh a local level since last January,, is expanding its service to take in Broadway shows. Irving Sherman, who rurts. the outfit, was in New York recently to sound out -theatre owners on -the feasibility of his handling local ticket orders for Broadway show’s. ■ Herman, who was with the Shuberts in vaude and legit for more than 26 years and claims to be the. first licensed ticket broker in Florida; will dot get an allot¬ ment of ducats for Broadway shows. His function will be that of a middleman for those who want to deal directly to the thea¬ tres Unlike the usual brokerage op¬ eration, Sherman’s agency does not hit customers with a service charge on tickets purchased for local offerings. Instead, he’s sub¬ sidized via different deals by those : for whom he’s peddling the pasteboards. However, in the case of tickets to Broadw’ay shows there will be a service charge to the purchasers. Seek Canadian Adaptors For 'Sabrina Fair’ Tuner Ottawa, Dec. 3, . “Sabrina Fair,” Samuel Taylor’s Broadway comedy hit of 1953-54, may be done as a musical. Timothy Porteus' and James Domville, au¬ thors of “My Fur Lady,” the recent¬ ly professionalized McGill U, mu¬ sical comedy, have been paged by Worthingtpn Miner and Kenneth Wagg to do the adaptation. Por¬ teus collaborated on the book and wrote most of the lyrics for “Fur Lady,” while Domville composed more than 'half the score. Miner arid Wagg produced “Four Winds,” a drama by Thomas W. Phipps and costarring British film- legit actress Ahn Todd, on Broad¬ way early this fall. By ROBERT J. LANDRY The stupendously triumphant life and exasperatingly bungled terminal illness of the world’s greatest—why quibble?—tenor has been fascinatingly re-told for this generation in the journalistic style of the present day. The new work, just published at $6.50 by Studio-Crowell, expands and pinpoints a story which is basic¬ ally amazing because its hero was:. Modernity of the telling is in the vivid visualization as the title, ‘‘Caruso—His Life In Pictures”, suggests. But there is more than abundant illustration. There is irresistable nostalgia, rich Americana, side-remarks about operatic history, and many A provocative question about the wonder and nature of the gift of God called talent. Author : collector-musicologist, used-to-be-a-hew’spaperman-himself Francis Robinson shows in his book the fruit of a private enthusi¬ asm. pursued over a long researching, borrowing and checking period. A good deal that is new is added to the Caruso saga. Robinson's post as an assistant manager of the Metropolitan Opera facilitated his access to- memorabilia • and odd tidbits but even allowing that advantage he’s out-Lifed Life and strictly as a journalistic deed, history apart, tile accomplishment of this one- man research-and-text team is close to monumental. (A full listing of Caruso disks by John Segrest is included); Caruso is still today the model and the measure for tenors. If his endowments and achievements made his bwh life a sometimes tortured quest of perfection endlessly repeated, breathes, there a successor today not haunted, and 'judged, by the man who died in 1921? , Caruso was musical art raised to the nth power. And yet he never lost his head, nor was less the human being, though so far above run-of-inill talent. Perhaps the implication is that true-great- ness knows a kind of modesty w’ithin the terrifying compulsions without which there is no greatness. In any event Caruso got $2,500 a performance at the Met, and could have been paid more if he had demanded more. His royalties while alive from Victor amounted to $1,825,000, $130,000 more than the Met .paid him to sing on its'stage 607 times in 37 operas over 18 years. The Caruso estate collected another $2,000,000. In Victor royalties. In the present name-dropping age, there is none to compar with Caruso. He was a celebrity towering above celebrities. His art made the publicity, not vice versa as sometimes today. His was no life of fabulous wealth based on personality alone, no screen flash. Caruso worked like a longshoreman to deserve his honors and money. A peasant fated to be buried from the Naples-basilica reserved for Royalty the moral of Caruso’s existence seems to be that God’s gift of great talent, when that talent never lays down, never sulks, never holds back, has no limits except death. Francis Robinson has. built-in the provocation and the question, as well as the detail and the anecdota. The pictures, handbills; Caruso’s own sketches, all of the material adds up to the. Toyal nonesuch of operatic biography. The showworlditself cannot withhold its fascination. Show Out of Town Life in the Road Continued from page 73 — week with a $51,000 gross on an eight-performance, two-way split. The other: company of “Ser¬ geants,” which has been touring for] about a year and A half nabbed a good $32,700 last week: “Ser¬ geants,” “Mame” arid “Lady” are figured to have strong name value out-of-town on the basis of sock Broadway reputations. I in the cases of “Night,” starring Edward G. Robinson, “Waltz,” co- starring Melvyn Douglas and Paul¬ ette Goddard, and “Millionaire,” starring Walter Pidgeon, the pull is attributed more to the name per¬ formers than the particular shows. “Night” had a business setback last week in Columbus, O., but on.| the overall it’s-been rolling along at a brisk pace. . However, “Separate Tables,” co- starring Eric Pbrtman and Gerald¬ ine. Page, doesn’t appear to have too much name value. The show was only, a . moderate Broadway hit, while Portman, a Britisher, and ;Miss Page, who’s better known around Broadway, aren’t considered particularly strong lures for the out-of-town trade. Besides, the click business being done by these touring entries, try¬ outs with story and/or star values are also going over big at the b.a Bright Sun at Midnigltt Toronto, Nov. 27; Crest production o£ three-act .drama by John Gray. Stars John Drainie. .Directed by. Donald Davis; setting; Murray Laufer. At Crest Theatre.: Toronto; Nov. 27, '57; $3.90 top. Jean Hobbes . .Maude Whitmore Anthony Ferris.;.John Holden Jeremy Cranston-.....Larry Mann Harry Jones, M.P../. James. Doohan. Charles Brown win Stephenson Margaret Macpherson.........Ann Morrish CBC New* Voice: -... .Orest Ulan SCHEDULED N.Y. OPENINGS BROADWAY (Theatres Set) Ceplus & Goddess, Miller (12-10-57). Shadow My Enemy, ANTA (12-11-57). Music Man/ Majestic (12-19-57).' Miss^lsobel, Royale (12-26-57). . Two for Seesaw, Booth (1-1G-58). Summer 17th> Coronet (1-22-58). Body Beautiful, B'way (1-23-58). Sunrise at Campobello, Cort (1-30-58). Oh Captain, Alvin <2-4-58). Blue Denim, Playhouse (2-27-58). Love Me Little, Hayes (4-9-58). Goldilocks,. Globe (4-10-58). (Theatres Not Set) Cut Of Axe (wk. l-27-58\ Winesburg, Ohio (wk. 1-27-58). Maybe Tuesday (2-1-58). Portoflno (wk. 2-3-58). Interlock (2-6-58). Venus at Large (2-11-58). Cloud Sevan (2-12-58). Entertainer (2-12-58). This, ts Goggle (2-13-58). Day Money Stopped (2-20-58). Actress in Love (2-24-58). Back to Methuselah (3-17-58). Say Darling (4-3-58). Hearts A Dollars (4-3-58). OFF-BROADWAY . Bros. Karamciov, Gate (12-6-57). Pale Horse, Jan Hus (12-9-57).' Sicilian Capers, Marquee (12-10-57). Garden District, York (1-7-58). Winkelberg, Renata. (1-8-58). Chairs & Lesson, Phoenix. (1-9-58). Endgame, Cherry Lone (1-14-58), Penny Candle; Circle (l-15-58>. Dmitri Karamazov, Jan Hus (1-27-38). Last spring, Herbert Norman, Canadian ambassador . to Egypt, committed suicide in Cairo; He had been accused by Senate investi¬ gating committee in. Washington of Corminunist affiliation, on evidence supplied, by the Mounties and .the; F.-B.L His sudden death on the grounds of “hounding” aroused Canadian resentment against the US. John Gray has fashioned a play about the incident and tagged it “Bright Sun at Midnight.” For some obscure reason he has made the hero the Canadian ambassador to India, arid has him accused by the investigating committee, backed by evidence, of being a former Communist Party member. Tq his defense comes his closest friend from boyhood days, the. Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs. That Involves a conflict with' the Prime Minister and, later, with the. Party in power at Ottawa, which does not wish to rock Canada’s newspaper readers on any ; temporary “hate America” campaign, particularly when such, a disturbing outlook might upset a forthcoming, four-year election in Canada. Further compicating political matters is that the cabinet officer has been named successor to the Prime Minister. In protest against the international smirching of his colleague's reputation, plus his own “conscience,” he resigns in the third act and tosses - up his own political career. Thereafter, “Bright Sun” devolves into a debate, With the argument finally obscured by the minister's resignation when his. friends and political comrades de¬ cide to remain neutral in: their.pro^ posed protest against a good,. if big, neighbor across the border. The author is another angry man arid has let his emotions run away with him in making the stage a pulpit. He has mirrored his per¬ sonal feelings on a hefo-martyr biit made his play a political tract: that may be temporarily shocking but Is still the device of idealism versus the political machine.. John Drainie carries the brunt of the evening as the crusading cabir net minister, alternating from a fundamentally kind man to a roar¬ ing power, Jphn Holden, as the Under-Secretary of State, is also splendid as the initially loyal aide who finally admits that he is near¬ ing retirement age and can’t afford to take sides. Larry Mann, as the U.S. Ambas¬ sador to Canada, plays with tol¬ erant understanding and dignity^ Also outstanding is Edwin Stephenson as the advertising agency speech-writer who doesn’t care what political side he is oh as long as he gets his .money, James Doohan as the Prime . Minister’s message-carrier. Ann Morrish plays the stereotyped role of the wife who voices tender platitudes, and Maude * Whitmore portrays the ’ Cabinet minister’s understanding secretary. Donald Davis has directed with keen perception and pace, and Mur¬ ray Laufer has provided a good, if sombre. Set of the Cabinet minis¬ ter’s office. However, “Bright Sun at Midnight” is no “State of the Union,” and while it might, be worthy of a Canadian tour on topi¬ cality and inside political stuff, it seems too localized for U.S*tastes. McStay.