Variety (October 1958)

Wednesday, October 29, 1958 PfiRiEfr LEGITIMATE Shows on Broadway Continued from page Si ssSiSSSSS Oaee More, with Fueling board chairman remarks, “I hope mama is wearing her ear trumpet.” The first and third acts are Studded 'with laughs, including quite a few howls, but the second act is relatively quiet. The open¬ ing-night performance may also have been slightly askew, as many comedy lines drew less response than they apparently should. How¬ ever, the show as a whole keeps the audience chortling fairly stead¬ ily and, particularly with the Joseph Cotten and Arlene Francis names as come-on, it should have a satisfactory run.. It could be an uproarious .film. 7 The show is generally well played. Miss Francis, in particu¬ lar, gives a dynamic, seemingly effortless performance as the harp¬ ist who has managed to keep her spirit and identity as well as the conductor’s interest through 15 years of non-wedded domestic war¬ fare, and Walter Matthau hullseyes in the mop-up role of the manager- with most of the author’s sardonic lines. Cotten, faced with the problem of being exasperatingly conceited and selfish, and at the same time likable enough to justify the harp¬ ist’s- love and the audience’s con¬ cern, lacks the sort of personal flamboyance the conductor is sup¬ posed to have, but fulfills the other requirement of the part Ralph Bunker is laughably prissy as the board chairman who hates music, Leon Belasce is amusingly deadpan in the dual role of mutu- a'ly-deprecating brother first-fid¬ dlers, Rex Williams is belieyably harassed as an orchestra manager. Frank Milan is acceptably baffled as the college president-fiance and Paul E. Richards is passable as the -maestro’s awed Man Friday. George Axelrod, taking time out from his own comedy-writing pur¬ suits, has staged the frolic, while George Jenkins has designed ap¬ propriately grandiose interiors, Michael Travis has. provided the men’s costumes and Scaasi has come up with a succession of strik¬ ing gowns for Miss Francis. “Once More” is presented by Martin Gabel (Miss Francis’s hus¬ band) and Henry - Margolis,. who produced the previous Kumitz play. This time, they seem to have hit the right note. Kobe. Make a Million Joel Specter & Sylvia Harris production of three-act (four scenes) comedy by Nor-. man Barasch and CarroU Moore; staging, jerome Chodorov; ''scenery and lighting, Paul Morrison; costumes, Ann Roth. Stars Sam Levene; features Don Wilson, Neva Patterson, Ralph Dunne, Conrad Janis, Bill Hickey, Ty Perry, Ann Wedgeworth, j Joy Hannon. At the Playhouse, N.Y. Oct. 23, ’58; $6.90 top ($9J20 opening). Receptionist . Joy Harmon, Quiz Winner Couple Charles Welch, Barbara Barkley j Claire .Neva Patterson Sid Gray ... Sam Levene Bemie Leeds .. Bill Hickey Howard Conklin .Dpn Marye Harold Fairbanks ..........Ty Perry Julie Martin-'.Ann Wedgeworth Sponsor .. . Ralph Dunn General . Don Wilson Lieutenant . Edgar Hess King . Conrad Janis Gl's.Richard Blair, Dennis Richards, Ed Crowley, Guy Perone Henry Whipple .Hoke Howell Detective .. Ed Crowley You can’t satirize radio or tele¬ vision, according to Shubert Alley folklore, because they’re funnier in reality than anything anyone can say about them.- Whatever else it may do, “Make a Million” won’t be the exception to disprove the bromide. This Norman Barasch and Car- roll Moore -concoction, which Joel Spector and Sylvia Harris brought to Broadway last week, is a tepid opus which not even the efforts of superbly comic Sam Levene can save from mediocrity. It's prob¬ ably due for a short stay and is a dubious bet for pictures, but may be an occasional item for stock. Television quiz shows for fabu¬ lous money payoffs are the basic ! material of the play, but the prem- • ise is never established, so the elaborate plot complications and contrived* pieces of business sug¬ gest author desperation rather than audience mirth. The locale is a tv producer’s gaudy penthouse office. Besides the video packager, the characters include his ever-lovin’ secretary and ex-wife, a dimwit sexpot-receptionist, and a timid ad agency executive (who’s been in analysis for three years, natch— and that provides the sole real laugh when someone mentions the incongruity of his being unable to write a suicide note). There’s also a bulldozing sponsor, a fatuous Army general, a pretty and sweetly innocent contestant whose im¬ pending, illegitimate motherhood threatens the program’s sponsor¬ ship, the jive-talking GI who must be persuaded to marry the girl, and so on. Nothing helps much, try as the cast plainly does. Levehe gives another of his vastly accomplished comedy performances as the frantic tv producer, Neva' Patterson is at¬ tractive and astonishly poised as his secretary-former wife arid about-to-be new wife, radio-video announcer Don Wilson is effective¬ ly pompous as the Pentagon brass, Anne Wedgeworth suitably fetch¬ ing as the Dixie-bred mother-to^bfe and Conrad Janis is ‘his usual off-’ hand self as the Lothario soldier. Jerome Chodorov, who suc¬ ceeded Ezra Stone as directoriiur- ing the tryout tour, has staged the rumpus, Paul Morrison designed the gimmicky setting and Ann Roth provided the costumes. ' Hobe. Israeli Pianist Victor ! In Rubinstein Contest Tel Aviv, Oct. 21. After a seven-hour competition concert, held at the Frederic R. Mann Auditorium here, the Artur Rubinsteih prize of $1,000 was awarded to Mordehai Siraoni, Is¬ raeli-born pianist. Artur Rubin¬ stein, in Israel on. his second visit, has created* a scholarship fund, into which all of his soloist’s fees due to him for appearances in Is¬ rael, are being paid by the*Israel Philharmonic, his hosts. This year, he wished to award three prizes* but in the future only scholarships will be awarded to worthy appli¬ cants. Simoni, son ©f immigrants from Caucasus, studied piano at the Shulamit Conservatoire here. For the last two years he worked in Brussels with Stefan Ashkenase, holding a scholarship from the Bel¬ gian government. The verdict of the jurors was unanimous in favor of young Simoni,. Instead of dis¬ tributing a second and third prize, the jury decided to award two second prizes of $400 each to Igal Rugachevski and Herut Israeli. Herbert Grossman will conduct the Broadway production of “Maria Golovin.” Pleasure of His Collaboration ; Continued from page 57 ; ly had a change of heart, and asked to have the parentheses dropped. The Times again reported the switch, with quoted explanation, and the billing has since.read, “By Samuel Taylor, with Cornelia Otis Skinner.” Taylor’s name is in bold¬ face type and Miss Skinner’s in light-face. This billing, like the parenthetical previous version, is unique In the memory of trade veterans. (Miss Skinner also gets billing as costar with Cyril Ritch- ard and Charlie Ruggles.) Both Taylor and Miss Skinner were quoted by Sam Zolotow in the - Times as denying that there had been any revision of the au¬ thorship royalty split, at least re¬ cently. That apparently refutes a rumor that the arrangement had originally been 60-40 in Taylor’s favor, but had been changed one or more times and was recently made 80-20. As one Shubert Alley denizen commented, Miss Skinner might have mentioned author bill¬ ing and royalty headaches among the pre-opening jitters she de¬ scribed in a recent Times Magazine article. In the biographical notes in the back of the Playbill, it refers to Taylor’s background as a play- reader and play-doctor, and cites the Broadway play, “What a Life” and the derivative radio and tv series, “Aldrich Family” as a suc¬ cessful example ©f his work. Both the play and radio-tv series were written by Clifford Goldsmith, but j were the subject of a- dispute and arbitration between him and Tay- r lor, who was conceded to have j supplied suggestions and been paid a fee. Goldsmith won the case. The pre-production deal under which William Perlberg and George Seaton acquired the screen ! rights to “Pleasure,” for Para¬ mount release, provides for a down payment of $75,000, plus bonuses of $2,500 a week for the duration of the Broadway run, to a $175,000 ceiling, or a total of $250,000 alto¬ gether. In addition, Taylor is to' get $100,000 for doing the screen treatment. It’s understood that the film producers made the deal with Taylor, and that Miss Skinner’s name does not appear on the con¬ tracts. - Perlberg and Seaton are report¬ edly already planning to revise the play’s ending so that the San Fran¬ cisco, society girl will not cancel, or at least postpone for a year, her scheduled marriage to her cattle-man - fiance. As it is, she jilts the youth to go off on a World sight-seeing tour with her long- lost father, whose gallantries arid sophisticated manner intrigue her. The present finale has already been greatly modified from what was regarded as almost incestu¬ ous in flavor. With the indicated smash of “Pleasure” ©n Broadway, Fred¬ erick Brisson and the Playwrights Co. are now figuring on sending out a touring company, probably opening in February and working west to play Los Angeles and San Francisco next summer and go into Chicago next fall for an in¬ definite run. That will require an agreement wit^ Ritchard, whose contract as director and costar of the Broadway troupe gives him the option of starring on the road. Brisson and the Playwrights Co. learned this week that British pro¬ ducer Emile Littler has announced plans for a London presentation of a posthumous Frederick Lonsdale comedy, “Half a Loaf,” and has retitled it "The Pleasure of Your Company/’ Efforts are being made to persuade him to pick another tag for the play, on the .ground of possible confusion between the two shows, especially as the Tay- lor-Skinner piece now stacks up as a future London prospect. 'Abner’ Hits tbe Trail The Broadway company of “Li’l Abner,” which ended an eight- week run at the Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, last Saturday'(25), returned to New York Monday (27), prior to embarking on a national tour Nov. 19 at the Riviera Theatre, Detroit Another edition ©f the musical is on a one-niter trek booked by Broadway Theatre Alliance. Staged by HERBERT MACHIZ “Garden District” by TENNESSEE WILLIAMS — NEW YORK — BROOKS ATKINSON, New York Timet "As on exercise that Is both literary and dra¬ matic, this brief, withering play is a superb achievement. As directed by Herbert Machiz, the performance is a dark incantation." WAITER KERR, New York Herald Tribune "TKt performances are intensely arresting un¬ der Herbert Machiz' sympathetic direction." RICHARD WATTS, JR., New York Pott 'Tennessee Williams is an amazingly fascinat¬ ing writer for the theatre. 'Garden District' weaves a haunting fpell that is virtually hyp¬ notic In Its compelling power. Herbert Machiz' staging Is admirable." — LONDON — JOHN BARBER, Daily Ixpntt "ft held the audience frozen stiff. A cunning production of Herbert Machiz." CECIL WILSON, Doily Moil "Herbert Machiz has reproduced 'Garden Dis¬ trict' in London with on acute atmospheric sense." — HARpLD HOBSON, Sunday Timet "One feels like rising from one's seat to cheer." OXFORD MAIL "Herbert Machiz makes you feel that you are visiting the real Williams country for the first time." Opened last night (Oct. 28th) 1VAR THEATRE f Los Angeles Press: PHILLIP BLOOM 230 West 41st St., N. Y. CHkkering 4-5185 Management: ALDON SCHWIMMER Ashley-Steiner 579 Fifth Ave., N. Y. MUrray Hill 8-8330