Variety (January 1958)

268 LEGITIMATE Fifty-second PjBStfiSfr Anniversary January 8, 1958 CLOSED FOR REPAIRS Playwright and Theatre Historian Chronicles Some Of the Fabulous Failures of the Past Two Decades By EDWIN BRONNER Whenever a show dies on . the road before reaching Broadway, a press release is invariably sent out to the effect that' the production has closed for repairs and will reopen at a later date. Not one in a Hundred of . these calamitous casualties is ever, disin¬ terred: All too soon the costumes and scenery are shrouded in ware¬ house, dust, the play itself (wisely or unwisely) tossed from limelight to limbo. Once in a blue moon a: play like “Washington Square” will close for repairs and reopen under a different, management as “The Heiress.” But it's usually a safe bet to assume that death on the road is. final and Irrevocable. Take the case of “Battle of Angels,” a first play by Thomas L. i Ten¬ nessee) Williams, which starred Miriam Hopkins as Myra Torrance, a lady of considerably easy virtue. It opened in Boston, by the way, the same night that “Lady in the Dart” was testing its wings for the first time at the Colonial Theatre, around the corner. “Battle” dealt with a handsome halfwit adrift among some Mississippi rivertown women. The firstnight audience was shocked by the frank, earthiness of the writing. Williams didn’t mince his words. Neither next day did Boston's City Councillor. He labelled the play “putrid” and demanded it be closed immediately, adding: ‘‘The police should arrest the persons responsible for bringing shows of this type to Boston.” Meaning, we must assume, the Theatre Guild,: director Margaret Webster and Miriam Hopkins..: It's not a dirty play,” Miss Hopkins shot back. “I haven’t got to the point where I have to appear in dirty plays.” A few performances later “Battle of Angels” was duly closed for re: pairs, (“Battle,” a casualty of the 1940-41 season, was subsequently rewrit¬ ten by Williams and presented on Broadway last season as “Orpheus Descending.” It folded after an unprofitable nine-week run:) “The play was more of a disappointment to US than to. you,” the Theatre Guild: admitted in an unprecedented letter to its Boston sub¬ scribers. ‘Battle’ turned out badly, but who knows whether the next one by the same author may hot prove a success.”. _ . . / That “next one,” of course,, was “The Glass Menagerie,” produced by Eddie Dowling and Louis J. Singer. A couple of years later Dowl¬ ing and Singer decided to test their luck a second time With “St. Latare’s Pharmacy,” also starring Miriam Hopkins. It never reached New York. ] Curious Tombstones ~~f Looking back oyer the past 20 years of the American theatre and recalling even a few of the productions Which never lived up to their brave “Prior to Broadway”, placards, is a little like walking through a graveyard dotted, with curious tombstones. Digging up corpses^-even theatrical corpses— can be a ghoulish sort of business. But it can be Instructive and "Uso — if one must labor the point— constructive. Why , did this fatal accident occur? How? When? Where? and, again, why? Why, for example, did the late Sidney Howard's “Madam -Will: You Walk” giye up the ghost after only a few weeks on tour in 1939? With Peggy Conklin, Arthur Kennedy, Sara AUgoqd and Keenan Wynn in the cast, with settings by Robert Edmond Jones and incidental music by Kurt Weill, this “cockeyed version of the Faust legend” was enchant¬ ing theatre. It’s true that George, M. Cohan was not too happy in the leading role. It’s equally time that the play— daring, imaginative, and exhilarating as it; was — -needed work. . (“Madam” is one of the exceptions. They finally got around to; it a few seasons ago at New York’s downtown Phoenix.) It’s easier to understand why “The Admiral Had a Wife’ closed for repairs and never reopened! Jose Ferrer produced, and directed this comedy set in Pearl Harbor. With Uta Hagen, Alfred Drake and Bed . Buttons prominent in the cast* “Admiral” was booked to open in New. York on Wednesday,* Dec. 10, 1941. The Japanese attack on Pearl Har¬ bor on Dec. 7 wrote finis to this, ill-fated production. Bad luck of a different sort Was encountered a few years back with the presentation of “Star Dust,” by N. Y. Herald Tribune critic. Walter Kerr. “Star Dust” was a really funny comedy about a Hollywood lu¬ minary who got tangled up with a highbrow little theatre group. It was woefully miscast and misdirected. Ward Morehouse, William Bqlitho, William Archer, DonaldHirkley, Alexander WoblCott arid Wol¬ cott Gibbs at least saw their brainchildren reviewed by their fellow^ members of The League of Contented Rattlesnakes, to pilfer a phrase from the late Percy Hammond. Kerr’s play* however/ opened in Phila¬ delphia and closed rather abruptly in Baltimore. 'Kerr, however, has been represented on Broadway by four other entries. All the produc¬ tions, including “Star Dust,” . Were put on before Kerr joined the Tribune.) Tallulah Bankhead was ambushed by “I Am Different” back in 1938, together with John Emery, Fritzi Scheff and Glenn Anders. ^‘Defying the thermometer,” Miss Bankhead recalls, “it opened in Chicago in August* , and by Thanksgiving Day had edged as far east as Washington. There it. Collapsed from public lethargy. It had been a shambles from the start.” Gertrude Lawrence experienced a similar fate in 1944 with “Errand For Bernice,” a three-character contrivance written and directed by Jacques Deval. As an Army nurse on a San Francisco furlough. Miss Lawrence was never more radiant, never more winning. Katharine Cornell had her share of troubles with “Herod and Mariamne,” “Rose Burke” and “Captain Carvallo,” none of which ever reached the Rialto. In the first, she played, the stately, long-suffering : wife of Fritz Kortner. Florence Reed and Kent. Smith were on hand to offer advice, and .consolation. In the second, she was a wise and Witty sculptress in love with Philip Merivale, amused by Jean PierreAumont; In “Carvallo” she was married, as I recall, to the late Nigel Bruce Intrigued by the stalwart Sir Cedric Hardwicke. . Ruth Chatterton, one of the most resourceful actresses of the American stage, was. also a three-time loser with “A Lady Comes Home,” “Bow to the Wittiest” and “Treat Her Gently.” This latter was authored by the prolific George Batson. Miss Chatterton not only . starred in the play, but produced it, directed it and designed the set¬ tings. "Gently” was a reasonably diverting comedy about a sophisti¬ cated book reviewer (conservative) Who falls in love with a young writer (radical). Closed for repairs, it reopened under Guthrie McClintic’s tutelage as “Punch and Julia,” with Jane. Cowl as the conservative, and Gregory Peck as the well-meaning insurgent. But it Was no rise.. “Punch And Julia” was withdrawn from the marketplace, too. Not even Shirley Booth could save “Heartsong,” Irene Selznick’s first foray into play production. Miss Booth played the part of a charmingly alcoholic radio casting director in this domestic drama by Arthur Laurents, Six years later Laurents squared accounts. to every¬ one’s satisfaction by penning “The Time of the Cuckoo” for his heroine. Ruth Gordon was stricken with repairitis while appearing in Alex¬ ander King and Chester Erskihe’s “Portrait of a Lady,” a venomous ap¬ praisal of a well-known authoress. (This is not to be confused with a similarly titled play, adapted by William Archibald from Henry James’ novel, which had a: brief Broadway run In 1954.) Ina^ Claire had her siege with “Yankee Fable,” a costume romp presented by^Cheryi Craw¬ ford, and staged by Otto Preminger. Mae West was Laid low. by f Gome On Up” in which she played Carliss Dale,: Washington adventuress. And Melvyn Douglas by ‘Let Me Hear the Melody,” in which he im¬ personated a thinly-disguised Scott Fitzgerald under Burgess Mere¬ dith’s surveillance. : ; .... j , Hollywood Headaches _ _ j Screen, stars Veronica Lake, Joan Blondell and Claire Trevor closed out of town in “Masquerade,” “Goodbye to Love” and “Out West It s •Different,” respectively, the last -a wild-and-woolly satire on the Group Theatre by the Spewacks. “Emily” kept its petite star, Simone Simon, onstage, from start to finishwith nary a single exit. Margaret O’Brien never got out of Boston with Clare Booth Luce’s “Child of the Morn¬ ing.” The following ;seasbh the poor kid was embroiled in a rather awesome little melodrama, “The Intruder,” written by this reporter, produced: and directed by the redoubtable Eddie Dowling. Another thriller, “The: Master’s Chair,” by Rand Elliot and Albert Dickason, involved, the talents of Ona Munson and Richard Ney — but not for long, Gloria Swanson and Francis Lederer attempted in “Three Curtains” to bring Shaw’s “Mari of Destiny,” Barrie’s “Old Lady Shows. Her Medals” arid Pinero’s “Playgoers” to Broadway. The season before, Eddie DOWling and Julie Haydon tackled a group of Sean O’CaseyWilliam Saroyan playlets, but “Life, Laughter and Tears,” as it was called, also failed to make the grade. Only Noel Coward, it would seem, can make an evening of one-acters tinkle at the wickets. In the purlieus of the problem play, radio writer Max Wylie drafted a thoughtful, disturbing drama, “The Greatest of These/’ about contemporary India. Mary Boland, Gene Raymond and Sam Jaffe appeared in it. Micaela O’Hara had an extremely promising play on what is Usually *ef erred to as a delicate subject iri. “Honor Bright:” “A Young American,” a drama on. race relations written by this correspondent, received some flattering reviews wheri . the Blackfriars Guild produced it here in NeW York with Louis Peterson, author of “Take a Giant Step” in the lead. Recast, redirected and re¬ written, it failed to stir up much excitement oil the road Under the auspices of the Messrs. Shubert arid Albert de Courville. And so it goes. “There’s No Business Like Show Business ” or, “Show Business Is No Business!” Take your choice. Kermit Bloomgarden’s “A Certain Joy” didn’t live up to its title. Eddie Dowling’s “Springboard To Nowhere” did. Marcus Heiman. was forced to call it quits with ‘‘Tangled Web,” Max Gordon with “Franklin Street,” Oscar Serlin With “The King’s Maid,” Gilbert Miller with “The Big Story,” Milton Berle with “Same Time Next Week/’ Arthur Hammerstein with “One Flight Down.” Paul Osborn’s “Maiden Voyage,” Joe Kramni’s “Build With One Hand” and John veil Druteri’s “Daricirig in the Chequered Shade” were unfortunate dis¬ asters of tnodCrn vintage. What about Arthur Kober’s “Bella’s Got a Fella,” Clifford Gold¬ smith’s “Mr. Cooper’s Left Hand,” Mark Reed’s “One Shoe Off ,” Jerry Chodorov’s “Bamaby and Mr. O’Malley?” and “Judy O’Connor,” ‘‘The Fig Leaf” and “West of the Moon,” co-authored respectively by Frank Ross, John Gerstad rind Louis Broirifield? Couldn’t at least one of these Comedies be fixed, mended* restored? The. Bromfield opus was an especially intriguing concoction, a satire on the phoney Spiritualism racket in SouthernCalifornia, with Donald Cook as a charlatan selling celestial real estate, and Estelle WinWOod as a bereaved widow. Bromfield’s fate as a dramatist, has been paralleled in recent sea¬ sons by Sinclair. Lewis, (“Angelais 22”) , Herman WoUk ( “Modern Primi. tive”), Arthur Koestler (“Twilight Bar”) and Graham Greene (“The Heart, of the Matter’’). ■] The Melodies DidriLLinger On 1 Rodgers & Hammerstein produced “The Heart of the Matter” and, to date, it is their Only offering which failed to hit the Main. Stem. In the musical comedy, genre, however, the. number of shows which didn’t quite make it to Gotham is staggering. Ori occasions it is down¬ right mystifying. ... Why, for; instance, didn’t “The Little Dog Laughed” come to town? I recall, itasanopulerit, eye-filling fantasia boasting a batch of tunes out of Harold Rome’s top-drawer, aided and abetted by a really Clever book by Joe Schrarik. This was the team responsible for most of the good, things in ‘Tins and Needles,” of pleasant memory. Atlantic City audiences liked practically everything about “The Little Dog Laughed.” Yet it died a dog’s death.. It couldn’t have been, money trouble, for this “new satirical musical” was reputedly backed by a member of the duPont family. So what happened? Wby did it close for repairs and fail to reopen? Arid what about the Mary Martin show, “Dancing In The Streets,” which Vinton Freedley produced 10 years back? It boasted a hum¬ ble. Vernon Duke score, a topical (but not typical) Howard . Dietz-Johri Cecil Holm book; set in Wartime Washington, and some really special Robert Alton terpsichorean turns. Aside from the captivating Miss Martin, the company included Dudley Digges, Cora Witherspoon, Ernest Cos.sart, Billie . Worth, . Mark Dawson, Lucille Bremer, Johnny Coy, . Jack Kilty arid Don Liberto. What happened to “Dancing In The Streets?” Another musical which deserved a better fate than it received was. “The Life of the Party/’ by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. The Detroit firstnighters were enthusiastic arid the reviews next morn¬ ing were exceptionally friendly. I didn’t know then Why ‘‘Party” curled up and died, and I don’t know now. “The Life of the Party” was an adaptation of “The Patsy.” However, its fate was no worse than modernized versions of “Little Jessie James” (“Heels Together”), “The Firefly’’ (“Full Speed Ahead”), “Excursion” (“A. Month of Sundays”), arid “Sailor, Beware” (“Nice Goin' ”). Broadwaynever got a peek at any of these. “Nice Goin' ” (with Mary Martin, Bert Wheeler, Tom EWell, Carol Bruce, Pert Kelton, Anthony Ross, Vicki Cummirigs* Lee Dixon), probably had more trouble than all the others put together. It weathered a series of postponements rivalling the legendary Viricent Youmans’ show of the ’20s, “Great Day,”, which eventually came to be known in the trade as . “Great Delay.” Among the mpre fabulous miscalculations of recent years in the song-and-dance division are: Milton. Berle’S "Spririg. In Brazil;” Max Baer’s “Hi’ Ya, Gentlemen;” Derinis King’s “She Had to Say Yes”; the B. P. Schulberg production of “Marianne,” with Ernest Truex and Mary Jane Walsh; the Shubert. Operetta, “Love In The Snow;” the Larry Storch revue (with sketches by George Axelrod), “Curtain Going Up;” and Cheryl Crawford’s pro¬ duction of Marc Blitzstein’s “Reuben, Reuben.” Also: the Dwight Deere Wiman-Jack Kirkland production of “They Can’t Get You Down,” with Jan Clayton and Peggy Ryan in the cast; “Bonanza Bound,” from the typewriters Of Betty Comden & Adolph Green; ‘That’S The Ticket,” , directed by Jerry Robbins; the Max LiebmanJoseph Kipness extravaganza, “Shootin’ Star,” with David Brooks as Billy The Kid and Doretta Morrow as his little prairie flower; the Abe Lincoln folk opera, “Stovepipe Hat” which got snarled up iri some mighty iiri-Lincolnesque legal maneuverings; “Windy City/’ the only musical ever produced which had its hero commit suicide onstage at the final curtain; and ‘‘Sweet Bye and Bye,” the S. J. Perelman-Al Hirschfield “futuristic” spectacle in which Dolores Gray chanted “Just Like A Man,” a. Vernon Duke-Ogden Nash creation appropriated six years later by Bette Davis in “Two’s Company.” These are pnly a handful of the productions which have closed, for repairs during the past 20 years. Some of them were hopeless from the start. But many of them were not and might have made the grade with a little 'more time on the road. No doubt New .York has been spared a few Indignities during the past two decades. But it has also been deprived of some enchanted evenings. American Actors By HENRY SHEREK London. Who said that there Were no good actors in the American The¬ atre?' On recent visit to New York I was quite overcome by the high standard prevailing. And a little ashamed. Perhaps I’m getting old— but not that old. True, as one gets older pne usually gets more, selective. Please don’t tell me it’s “The Method:” Actors and actresses, bless ’em) Only get better by acting. By elimination I credit the offBroadway shows and television. It’s true that they don’t get the kick of actually playing to a live audience ori television, but at least they do get proper, if rather, short, rehearsals and. do the play right through and in sequence, . unlike the repetitive and out-of-sequerice playing in motion pictures. Many of the off-Broadway pro¬ ductions give the young actors the finest training of all because they present , plays by Shakespeare, Shaw, Schiller and O’Casey. Great Writing always brings out the great¬ ness in acting. You don’t learn much by. mouthing platitudes Jri ladies’ boudoirs, and drawing¬ rooms. If the play demands it, these off-Broadway plays enable the actor to act to project the emotions fired by the author’s words and to: throw thpir voices to the back of : the auditorium. In one case, one actor did this so well that he kept on waking me up during “A Long Day's Journey Into Night.” I admit -■ ■this was on Broadway. That is precisely what surprised me. The. future bf the American actors lies in their getting the opportuni ty to exercise their art iri front of people. The way to in¬ crease this is ;to revive the tours arid increase the stock companies. The Unions’ rules have made this impossible. If only Washington would accept the theatre as one of the most important of the arts, it should dp more than its present piddling contribution to help. | Hang Your Heads j Is it not a disgrace that the richest country in the world con¬ tributes less, to the arts than a poor country like France, Which is alsp, at the same time, running a costly folly in Algeria? Don’t tell me to take, the beam out: of my own eye, please, be¬ cause I. freely, admit Without any •pressure at all, .that the same is true in England, With this excep¬ tion. Our government has seen the light arid taken the Entertainment Tax off the ‘‘living theatre/’ : The remission of Entertainment Tax in Britain has brought new hope to our theatres and saved a great number of the excellent re¬ pertory theatres that are such Wonderful training grounds for pur actors. You could do the same; but you would have to organize,, as we did. Form a sinking fund (many New York producers are anything but shaking and can well afford to con¬ tribute), get together, a committee, hire a leading lawyer and beat at the door of wise wizards in Wash¬ ington* There’s ari old Chinese saying: which runs: “It is the wheel that squeaks that gets the oil . r Squeak, Yanks. Dauphin Adapts ‘Seven,’ But May Not Act in It Claude Dauphin has completed a French translation pf “Rain Before Seven,” the . Marc Brandel play., once considered for BroadWay production. The French actor, starring iri “Clerambard” at the off-Broadway Rooftop Theatre, N; Y., has sent the translation to his agent in Paris. Dauphin said in New York last week that his translation of the work does not necessarily mean that he intends either to appear In the play or direct it. When “Rain Before Seven” first made, the Broadway rounds, Dauphin’S name was mentioned as the prob¬ able lead. I SWiss actor Maxiraffian Schell will make his Broadway debut in /■Interlock,” costarring with Rose¬ mary Harris. and; Celeste Holm*