Variety (November 1958)

72 LEGITIMATE P&tolkTY Wednesday, November 26, 1958 Shows on Broadway TUe Shadow of Gunman Cheryl Crawford & Joel Schenker pres¬ entation, by arrangement with the Actors’ Studio. Inc., of two-act drama by\Sean O’Casey. Staging. Jack Garfein; setting, Peter Larkin; lighting, Tharon Musser; •costumes, Ruth Morley. Features Zamah Cunningham. Bruce Dem', Stefan Gier- asch. James Green, Arthur Malet, George Mathews, Gerald OTLaughlin, Daniel Reed, William Smithers, Katherine Squire. Susan Strasberg Opened Nov. 20. *58, at the Bijou Theatre, N.Y.;, $5.75 top weeknights- $6.90 Friday-Saturday mghts ($7.50 opening). Donal Divoren.William Smithers Seumas Shields....Gerald OXoughlin .Maguire . Bruce Dern : Mr. Mulligan . Darnel Reed * Mrnnie Powell.Susan Strasberg Tommy Owens ...Stefan Gierasch Mrs. Henderson.Zamah Cunningham Mr Gallogher . Arthur Malet Mrs. Grigson . Katherine Squire Adolnhus Grigson .George Mathews Auxiliary .. .James Greene Passersby Jack Allen, Tammy Allen, Hilda Brawner, Tom Wheatley When he got through the con¬ versational preliminaries, Sean O’Casey used to write powerful, exciting drama. Although the celebrated Irishman prefers his fanciful later plays, it was the passionate, down-to-earth early works that set DubFn on its ear some 30 years ago and established O’Casey’s reputation. With “The Shadow of a Gun¬ man,” which opened at the Bijou Theatre last Thursday night (20) as the first in a series of Cheryl Crawford & Joel Schenker presen- tations in collaboration with the Actors’ Studio, there is offered a! striking contrast between the two O’Caseys. For this is the drama-] tist’s first produced full-length play, done originally in Dublin in 1922 and brought to New York in 1932 by the Abbey Theatre com¬ pany. One of O’Casey’s more re¬ cent efforts, “Cock - a - Doodle Dandy,” which he personally re¬ gards as h‘s best work, opened only a fortnight ago as an off-Broadway entry. Even allowing for the wide dif¬ ference in quality between the Broadway and off-Broadway pro¬ ductions and performances, it’s evident that O’Casey is a faulty judge of his own - work. “Gunman” is a better play, with more re¬ cognizable application, than “Cock- a-Doodle.” It has less form and finesse than O’Casey’s two biggest successes, “Juno and the Paycock” and “The Plough and the Stars,” and it lacks the exalted beauty of “Within the Gates.” But at its delayed best, “Gunman” has devas¬ tating punch and, if it had been v.ritten by an unknown author of today, would* bring him recognition overnight. For all its obvious and at times Irritating faults, this is a passion¬ ate, stunning drama by a major playwright, a man of stature and fire and guts. * It doesn’t really come to life and gather momentum until the second act. But then it throbs with vitality and, behind the deluge of Irish eloquence, the violent action and burning emotion have shattering impact. “Gunman” is, of course, about the Dublin rebellion of 1920 and it expresses the author’s familiar contempt for the boastfulness and cowardice of men in contrast to the matter-of-fact courage of wom¬ en, the stupidity and futility o.f armed warfare, the ignorance and hypocrisy of sectarian religion and the folly and glory of Gaelic eloquence. There’s little plot, but amid the welter of talk, merely the incep¬ tion of a love affair between a forthright, pretty colleen and the poet she believes to be a terrorist patriot. After seemingly endless blather by a drunken braggart, there’s a raid by British officers, and the girl sacrifices her life in saving her craven sweetheart. After the garrulous first act, the play gathers steam with the knowl¬ edge that the police raid impends. A* the tragedy keeps drawing closer there is unnerving tension in the interminable Irish gab, with the whiskey-inspired windbag pro¬ viding the uproar that brings the constabulary and, in consequence, the explosive final scene with the girl’s offstage death and the flat aftermath of the poet’s shame. The show is unevenly staged and played, but is taut and gripping in the big concluding scenes. Before that, the performance seems to lack smoothness and continuity, and what might be termed balance. For much of this, presumably, Jack Garfein’s direction is responsible. In the largely passive role of the poet, William Smithers seems a bit stilted, and Gerald ©’Loughlin is plausible if hardly emphatic as bis spineless roommate. However, Susan Strasberg makes a clear im¬ pression in the uncomplicated part of the heroine, George Mathews gives such a vivid portrayal of the roaring, chest-thumping souse that he almost pulls the show out of balance, and Bruce Dern adds brief vigor in the small part of a deadly- quiet terrorist. Arthur Malet offers a colorful portrait of a would-be pedantic letter-writer,. Zamah Cunningham provides an amitsing miniature of an ample biddy with an awed ad¬ miration of literacy, while Stefan Gierasch, Katherine Squire and Daniel Reed are acceptable as talkative Dubliners and James Greene is passable as a bullying Cockney trooper. - Peter Larkin has designed a graphically cluttered, dingy tenement setting, Tharon Musser’s lighting is mood-creating and Ruth Morley’s costumes pro¬ perly threadbare. “Gunman” is hardly the sort of entertainment or new-hit drama that spells smash boxoffice, but it provides a welcome antidote for O’Casey’s rather special recent playwriting. It’s also a creditable opening for the Crawford-Schenker series at the Bijou. Hobe. Edwin Booth Jose Ferrer & Playwrights Co. presen¬ tation of three-act drama by Milton Geiger. Stars Ferrer; features Lois Smith, Lome Greene, Richard Waring, Ian Keith, Sydney Smith, Marion Ross, Stephen Franken, Anne Helm. Staged by Ferrer; setting and lighting, Zvi Geyra; costumes, Edith Head; music, Paul Boyles. Opened Nov. 24, ’58, at the 46th Street Theatre, N.Y.; $3.90 top ($7.50 opening). William Winter .. -.Lome Greene Junius Brutus Booth, cider....' Ian Keith Edwin Booth, as boy... Stephen Franken Junius Brutus Booth, younger Sydney Smith Edwin Booth...Jose Ferrer Asia Booth . Marion Ross John Wilkes Booth.Richard Waring Mary Devlin . Lois Smith Edwina Booth.. Anne Hehn For the opening Monday night (24) of “Edwin Booth” at the 46th Street Theatre, producers Jose Ferrer and the Playwrights Co. issued, as a flossy insert to the regular Playbill, a souvenir pro¬ gram printed on silk in the elabo¬ rate style of the title star’s day. As it quickly turned out, that sets the tone for a rococo performance of a grandiloquent play. There have undoubtedly been worse than this in Broadway’s violently check¬ ered h’story, but it’s hard to recall on” so hollow. Traditionally, all actors long to play Hamlet. For Ferrer, then, it mu't have seemed a dreamy pros¬ pect to portray not only the Dane at his melancholiest, but also Romeo. Macbeth, Othello, Richard III and a half-dozen or so other classic roles, all in the guise of America’s celebrated 19th century tragedian, the great Booth h’mSelf. It’s a juicy part, all right. But it’s also a bombastic booby-trap. For the Milton Geiger script is a sort of gallery of attitudinizing, rhetorical episodes in the cape¬ swinging style of bygone melo¬ drama. The show takes Booth from his boyhood on tour with his father, Junius Brutus Booth the elder, himself a nassion-tearing actor, drinker and uninhibited eccentric in the fashion of his time. Moving awkwardly over and around Zvi Geyra’s ornate, two-level, obstacle- course setting, the action includes innumerable key moments in the star’s life. There are affectionate and re¬ criminatory family scenes, parts of rehearsals, passages from various Shakespeare dramas, Booth’s tur¬ bulent courtship and idyllic mar¬ riage,. bits about his failures and successes in America and London, the wife’s death, a- maudlinly drunken interlude, brother John Wilkes Booth’s assassination of Lincoln, the star's temporary re¬ tirement in the face of the family disgrace, the triumphant return to the stage and the bathos-drenched death scene. At the finale, Booth rises from his death chair and, as his surviv¬ ing brother, §ister and daughter crouch in grief, his transfigured being exchanges greetings with the visible spirits of his father, wife, murderer-brother and even him¬ self as a boy. Although the Civil War has been worked into the show earlier, author Geiger has (Continued on page 74) Seek $275,€08 Fund For Oregon Bard Festival Ashland, Ore., Nov. 25. A month-long campaign to raise $275,000 for the construction of a new theatre for the annual Oregon Shakespearean Festival here got underway recently. It’s figured the coin will have to be raised before Christmas in order to open the 1959 season in time for Oregon’s statewide centennial celebration. | -The Festival was launched 1935. hside Stuff—Legit Show Oat of Town J.B. Washington, Nov. 24. Alfred de Liagte Jr. presentation i two-act drama by Archibald MacLeis Staged by Elia Kazan; setting, Boris Aronson; costumes, Lucinda Ballard; lighting, Tharon Musser; music, David Amram; associate producer, Joseph I. Levine. Features Pat Hingle, Christopher Plummer, Raymond Massey, Nan Martin. Opened Nov. 24, *58. at the National Theatre, Washington; $4.95 top. Roustabouts.. Clifton James, James Olson Nickles .Christopher Plummer Mr. Zuss .Raymond Massey Distant Voice .. Ford Rainey J. B. .. Pet HinTle Sarah . Nan Martin David . Arnold Merritt Mary .; . Ciri Jacobsen .Ton-thon . Jeffrey Rowland Ruth .... Candy Moore Rebecca . Merry M-rtin’ Girl .. Janet Ward ^trs. Botticelli .. Helen Waters ' ,T rs. Lesure ..._..... Fav SeDpington Mrs. Adams .,. Judith Lowry Mrs. Murphy . Kaura Pierpont -TbUy .. Lane B’-adbury Rilc’-'d ... Bert r, ->nwav Zoohor .... Ivor " -encis Eliphaz . Andreas Voutsinas The friendship between George Bernard Shaw and Mrs. Patrick Campbell, already scheduled for stage representation - in the forthcom¬ ing “Dear Liar,” will also be the subject of a play, “A Figleaf in Her Bonnet,” by Jesse Thorn. In addition, London News Chronicle drama critic Alan Dent is working on a biography of Mrs. Campbell and is seeking anecdotal material. “Liar,” adapted by Jerome Kilty from the Shaw-Campbell corres¬ pondence, is due for a concert-style reading presentation on tour and perhaps Broadway next spring, with Katharine Cornell as star. “Fig- leaf in Her Bonnet” is scheduled for Broadway production by Patricia New’hall. As reported in Variety last week, Shaw’s correspondence with El¬ len Terry is also being adapted for stage presentation, probably in London. Both the Shaw-Campbell and Shaw-Terry correspondences have been available in book form for several years. When “My Fair Lady” departs the Shubert Theatre-in Chicago next Feb. 7 it will have played a total of 66 weeks in the Windy City, not 65 as stated in Variety recently. That will be only one week shy of the longrun record for a musical in- Chicago, still held by “South Pacific.” “J.B.,” Archibald MacLeish’s Biblical drama with poetic pas¬ sages,, staged by Elia Kazan, is a highly charged play capable of set¬ ting sparks flying, but not yet a satisfying theatrical experience, MacLeish has taken the story -nf Job, reset it today and rewritten it with bursts of magnificent Eng¬ lish. The result is an individual interpretation unlikely to be ac¬ ceptable to most Biblical scholars. Like the Bible’s Job, MacLeish’s J.B. loses a>l. First,- his children are killed in various tragedies. Then lrs wife, his home and his vast material possessions disappear in the concussion of a nuclear ex¬ plosion, leaving his body tortured by sores. In this circus of life, as Mac¬ Leish has written it and the set depicts it, J.B. listens to his com¬ forters, as Job did. He is unable to understand why he must suffer punishment, but keeps h*s faith in God, his acceptance of life as it is. He cries out in -the passion of the punished, but cannot truthfully re¬ ject his God, although he doesn’t know why. ' To MacLeish, gathering the im¬ pact of the Biblical ending but giving it a new twist tone and em¬ phasis, J.B.’s most difficult task is his reunion with his wife, which means the continuation of living. The force of evil suggests suicide as an easier out. The primary trouble with “J.B.” is the fierceness of its writing and staging. It needs relief, either in a slackening of pace or comedy. The fact that it is a short- play does not minimize the bristling impact of what is offered. But the audi¬ ence response at the finale at to¬ night’s (Monday) break-in seemed to indicate a feeling of let-down. Yet the performances are excep¬ tional in this Alfred de Liagre Jr., presentation. Pat Hingle is J.B., Christopher Plummer is the voice of evil, as the masked devil of. life’s circus, and Raymond Massey Is the voice of good in the mask of God. Good and evil speak their thoughts to the audience, over the plavers. The setting by Boris Aronson, extending into the orchestra pit with only a suggestion of a curtain, and the lighting by Tharon Mus¬ ser are remarkably imaginative. . As’ it ‘ stands, “J.B.” has little motion picture potential and could offer more promise for stock than Broadway. It is an actor’s paradise, with something less for the thea¬ tregoer. Carp. Off-Broadway Reviews Tiie Man Who Never Died Irving Strouse presentation of three- act drama by Barrie Stavis. Staged by- Robert Mayberry; setting and lighting, John Robert Lloyd. Opened Nov. 21, *58, at Jan Hus Theatre, N.Y.; $3.50 top weeknights, $4.50 Friday-Saturday nights ($5 opening). Joe Hill . Mark Gordon Ben Winton.Richard Ward Ed Rowan . Stephen Gray Police Sergeant . Gordon Ramsey Tom Sharpe . Dan Keyes Judge Howe .. Paul Robmson Court Clerk . James Alpe Constable . Tom .Mulvey Harry McRae . Earl Rowe John T. Moody.Ferdi Hoffman Chief of Police Blake. Jack "Wilson Adam Steele . William Mahoney Greek .. Tom Klums Martha Weber .. Beatrice Roth Henrv Weber .i. - Tom Klunis Hilda Winton . Dorothy Butts Johnson ........ Gordon Ramsey O’Leary .. Tom Mulvey Mike Daly . Richard A. Farmer Scott McBride - .. Joe Callaway District Att’v Weatherbee James Aloe Martin Henderson.Glen McDonald .Tud*»e MitrheU . Sid R. Gross Viola Healey . Catherine Baer Alexander Marshall .Kermit Murdock Judee Alfred Beard. Tom Klunis Chief Justice Alex Cooley. Hack Right or Judge Fred Veitch ... Paul Robinson Attorney General Stone John Graham Rev. Bernard White ...Wiliam M a honey Gov. William Weed.Elwin Causey The framing of labor leader Joe Hill on a murder rap, for which he was subsequently executed in 1915, is the essence of “The Man Who Never Died.” Playwright Barrie Stavis, however, has so stacked the deck In favor of the union organ¬ izer as to vitiate dramatic impact. There’s little shading of char¬ acters or plot in this account of the conspiracy against HilL As a result, the three-acter emerges as a simple case of the Good Guys (Hill and his followers) being pitted against the Bad Guys (the copper mine boss, his hatchet men and the politicians). The drama is concerned mainly with the events preceding Hill’s arrest, his subsequent trial, appeals and finally his execution by a fir¬ ing squad. But the play’s black- and-white tones hamper emotional involvement and, except for the singing of some of Hill’s songs, there’s little that, reflects on the labor leader as an Influential in¬ dividual. Considering the obstacles, Mark Gordon is satisfactory In the title role. He heads a comparatively large cast for an off-Broadway production. Showing up impres¬ sively afe John Graham as an un¬ scrupulous Attorney General, Ker¬ mit Murdock as a sincere defense attorney and Stephen Gray as a union official. John Robert Lloyd has provided commendably skimpy settings for the various scene changes. Jess. Harris Masterson, an oil and cattleman from Houston, Tex., has formed a partnership with Charles R. Wood for the Broadway produc¬ tion of “God and Kate Murphy,” by Kieran Tunney and John. Synge. John C. Wilson had previously in¬ tended doing the play with Wood. Masterson is also contemplating a production of Maurice Zolotow’s “The Marriage Equation.” Propose Mail-Only Vote For Equity H-H A major change in the election procedure of Ac¬ tors Equity is being proposed by the union’s coun¬ cil. The governing body is in favor of amending the Equity constitution to provide that voting be entirely by mail referendum within four weeks after the union's annual meeting. The amendment, which has to be adopted by the membership before it becomes effective, would do away with the longstanding system of voting at the annual meeting itself, with absent members mail¬ ing in their ballots prior to the confab. Another proposed change would increase the amount of time between nominations and the annual’meeting. The proposed change in the election procedure is understood to stem from the council’s desire for the candidates to hit a wider segment of the Equity membership with their closing campaign statements than just those members, who show up at the an¬ nual confab and constitute a relatively small per¬ centage of the overall membership. In line with this, the amendment states that the election ballots and statements of the candidates be mailed, at the expense of Equity, to the senior resident members in good standing during the week following the annual meeting. Triad Peter Marx & Richard Altman presen¬ tation in association with Andrew Spie¬ gel. of three one-act operas by Mark Bucci. Staged by Altman; setting and lighting. Ming Cho Lee; musical director, Abba Bogin; choreographic interpola¬ tions for “Sweet Betsy From Pike,” Betty Low. Opened Nov. 21, *58, at Theatre Marquee, N.Y.; $3.90 top week- nights; $4.60 Friday-Saturday nights. Cast for “The Dress”: Anita Darlan, Travis Hudson, Dan Resin. Cast for “Tale for a Deaf Ear": Muriel Birkhead- Bruce Mackay, Dorothy Renzi, Virginia Carrol, William Carrozo, Francis Monschino, Dan Resin. Cast for "Sweet Betsy From Pike”i Travis Hudson, Dan Resin, Anita Darian. The operatic style of this triple¬ bill by Marc Bucci is easy to take. The singing is clear, the music is impressive and the performances are good. Of the entries, only “Tale for a Deaf Ear,” based on a story by Elizabeth Enright, is in a serious vein. It’s effective on all counts. “Ear” is sandwiched between “The Dress,” a thin item concerning a wife who buys an expensive dress without her husband’s knowledge, and “Sweet Betsy From Pike,” -* humorous western satire. Muriel Birkhead and Bruce Mac- feay, heading the cast of “Ear,” are excellent as a feuding married couple. During an argument the husband dies, but his life is re¬ stored when his wife, prayerfully vows that if given another chance there would be no more bickering. The fights continue and the hus¬ band again drops dead. Others showing up well in “Ear” are Dorothy Renzi, Virginia Carrol and William Carrozo. Also, on the plus side are Dan Resin’s chorus soloing, Richard Altman’s staging and Ming Cho Lee’s set and imag¬ inative lighting. Resin, Anita Darlan and Travis Hudson are the only performers in the other two offerings. Although Resin and Miss Hudson are fine in both, it’s Miss Darian who cops top honors, particularly In her handling of the title role In “Betsy.” Jess. TOO FEW ROAD SHOWS, SEZ RAWLEY, TORONTO Ottawa, Nov. 25. Broadway doesn’t produce enough hits these days to supply the road with a supporting crop of shows. That’s the thesis of Ernest M. Rawley, manager of Royal Alexandra Theatre, as expressed last Wednesday (19) on CBC’s Trans-Canada (radio) network. “Last season, however, we had 18 weeks of Canadian shows, includ¬ ing eight of ‘My Fur Lady/” he conceded. The professionalized McGill Univ. musical, which had a 14- month run in 82 towns, netted more than 5% profit “That’s as much as some Broadway success¬ es make,” remarked Donald Mac- Sween, one of show’s eight writer- owners appearing on the same broadcast. “ Net profit on “Fur Lady” was about $40,000 on a total gross of $750,000, it was revealed. That despite long hauls, having to hire seven standby musicians in many places and in at least one being compelled to pay “stagehands” re¬ cruited through the local employ¬ ment office and given temporary work cards because the union did not have enough members to stand by. “I Wish I May,” a kiddie show, which has been giving three per¬ formances on Saturday afternoons at the Theatre East, N.Y., is adding a Sunday matinee, beginning next Sunday (30). The score and book for the offering are by Claibe Richardson and Dr. Wallace Gray, respectively.