Variety (March 1959)

LEGrriMA'rE 83 Wednesday, March 11, 1959 PtilKIETf Caro Rebuts Gurian re TG-ATS ; Continued from page 79 ; 1958, through January, 1959, had kept it from being made available to other deserving touring attrac¬ tions m highly desirable subscrip¬ tion time; 2) The attraction having been announced and publicized in these cities as part of the subscription programs, many subscribers who purchased subscriptions in reli¬ ance upon the promise of seeing Julie Harris in this production would be deprived of the play; 3) Cancellations so late in the season could well make it impos¬ sible to replace with another at¬ traction, which would mean de¬ faulting in delivering the quota, of plays promised to the theatrego¬ ing public m those cities. For those reasons, the joint committee of the TG-ATS and the CLT by unanimous action at its meeting of Feb. 11, took excep¬ tion to Gurian’s arbitrary actions in cancelling without concern for the severe problems thereby cre¬ ated, and directed the subscription administrators to see to it that the original contract was enforced and the engagements "played as agreed. Rather than take legal action, the whole matter was presented to Gurian by long distance tele¬ phone in *an. amicable spirit of working out some mutually accept¬ able solution. Learning that his reason for cancelling Cincinnati was that the theatre terms were unacceptable to him, the TG-ATS appealed to all parties concerned and finally obtained for Gurian the precise terms he demanded, there¬ by facilitating for Gurian a rein¬ statement of the engagement In Pittsburgh, the Nixon Thea¬ tre was unavailable for the date booked. Relying upon Gurian’s statement that he could not play that stand at a later date on his tour, the cancellation was accept¬ ed without - further question. As to Philadelphia, although there was no impediment to Guri¬ an’s fulfilling his contract in that city, we accepted his change of mind and deferred to his personal wish to play there next season in¬ stead of this, and accordingly ac¬ cepted his cancellation of the sub¬ scription engagement. This set¬ tlement of the matter, to Gurian’s advantage, seemed to us entirely reasonable and more than fair. Gurian, however,, characterizes the TG-ATS’ handling of the mat¬ ter as “dictatorial, unreasonable, unfair . . and charges that “they have only their own interests at heart, not our welfare.” Turn¬ ing on the entire subscription plan, which will have contributed more than $238,000 to the show’s grosses for the whole tour, he denounces it as “hurting the theatre instead of helping it,” and “partly responsible for the road’s present low ebb.” The public record of the TG-ATS for more than a quarter of a cen¬ tury, and of the CLT, which has been associated in promoting the subscription plan for the past seven years, stands as a complete refutation of such hysterical charges. Nevertheless, since our two organizations represent the en¬ tire community of the theatre, we recognize an obligation to clear up any possible' confusion which these reckless misstatements may have created. * Gurian’s claims of “Mercenary” motives to the contrary notwith¬ standing, the truth is that the na¬ tional subscription service is and always has been a non-profit op¬ eration, a poor structure for self- enrichment. The TG-ATS in its 27 years of service to the theatre has never declared nor paid a divi¬ dend to its stockholders, and its corporate officers, except for its business managers, have at all times served and now serve with¬ out salary. The CLT, the public relations arm of the League of N. Y. The¬ atres, embraces in its membership all producers belonging to the League, all equally entitled to the benefits of subscription, and it is organized as a non-profit founda¬ tion. • r*ny and all revenues derived from the subscription operation over and above the actual costs of administering the national service are plowed back into an industry fund which both organizations are committed by agreement to use “to improve the state of the legitimate theatre on the road” and “to in¬ crease the effectiveness of sub¬ scription by augmenting the supply of plays to the various suscription cities.” These funds actually have been successfully devoted to a promo¬ tional campaign of increasing sub¬ scription memberships, enlarging the subscription programs and in¬ creasing the playing time to permit more plays to undertake tours with th£_benefit of advance guarantees, and increasing the number of sub¬ scription cities fthis season ex¬ panded to 23 cities in the U. S. and Canada). The joint funds were also en¬ listed last season to prevent the closing of “Middle of the Night,” starring Edward G. Robinson, by taking over the tour and continuing it to the Coast for an additional seven-and-a-half weeks under sub¬ scription. Loans from these funds have been made from time to time to aid touring productions and they are now also being applied to carrying into effect the resolutions of the recent industry-wide nation¬ al convention of the theatre. A complete accounting of the work, of the two organizations was released to the trade In a printed “Report to the Legitimate Theatre Industry” covering the first three years of the joint promotion ef¬ fort. Incidentally, cited in the re¬ port as a prime example of the value of subscription support was the national company of “I Am a Camera,” starring Miss Harris. A joint committee of 10 mem¬ bers, five representing the TG-ATS and five representing the CLT, is responsible for the selection and classification of plays, the supervi¬ sion and control of the joint funds, and matters of broad policy. . One of the . specific claims in Gurian’s barrage of invective, is the statement, .. they made a tough deal, allowing us only $3.15 per ticket, much less than their own productions receive.” The sub¬ scription price mutually agreed upon with “The Warm Peninsula” was the same price allocated dur¬ ing the current season to other pre- Broadway tryout tours. The Theatre Guild’s: own tryout' productions: '/A Majority, of One” (co-produced with Dore Schary); “Requiem for a Nun” (co-produced with Myers and Fleischmann); “Third Best Sport,” and the in¬ coming “Triple Play” (co-produced with Dore Schary) starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn, alTj agreed upon the exact $3.15 sub¬ scription amount, as did the pro¬ ductions of other managements, in¬ cluding “The Pleasure of His Com¬ pany,” “J. B.,” “The Disenchanted,” “Tall Story,” “The World of Suzie Wong,” “The Girls in 509,” “The Cold Wind and the Warm” and others. converse of preventing shows from touring, as Gurian implies. No other management has ever charged the iniquities which Gur¬ ian claims to have encountered in subscription on his initial venture as a producer. On the contrary, the management and administra¬ tion of the subscription system at every level enjoys the trust and confidence of the entire theatre. We believe this is because it has been conducted impartially and with scrupulous care, and has al¬ ways dealt fairly and equitably in the delicate balance of interests of producers, theatre owners and op¬ erators, the theatre-going public, actors, playwrights, directors, de¬ signers and the professional legiti¬ mate theatre generally. Here is a wire—typical of many others—recently received from the author of another pre-Broadway production serviced by subscription (The Playwrights* Co.—“Listen to the Mocking Bird”): “Dear Warren Caro, I have found out the tremendous work you and your staff, Joan De Keyser and Shirley Boam and all did to make our opening in Washington possi- • hie. You and your people are what is right with the theatre. Please let me tell you how deeply grateful I am. Sincerely. Edward Chodorov." Those are the simple, fair facts about the relationship between “Warm Peninsula” and the TG- ATS. Warren Caro, (Executive Director, Theatre Guild-American Theatre Society ). Louis A. Lotito, ( President , Council of the Living Theatre .) A month after the tour opened, Gurian requested and was granted partially increased terms in St. Louis. Later, he requested further increases in the cities still to be played, and as he admits, the terms were changed everywhere possible to his advantage. Still, Gurian complains that he received “less than we’re entitled to.” The fact is that the increased • terms accorded “The Warm Penin¬ sula” because of the nature and scope of the tour were higher than allotted to any other pre-Broadway ! attraction this season, including those that toured extensively, such as the Guild’s production of “Third Best Sport,” starring Celeste Holm. (Post-Broadway tours of estab¬ lished New York successes are, for obvious reasons, in an entirely dif¬ ferent category.) As ior Gurian’s charge that “the group has created a mistaken im¬ pression among Broadway produc¬ ers that unless a show is a New York smash it requires the sub¬ scriptions to have any chance for successful road tour,” the TG-ATS and the CLT in their published “Report to the Legitimate Theatre Industry” took special pains to stress the exact opposite, as fol¬ lows: . “Many other attractions have completed highly successful tours without subscription , which means that the road theatre , adequately supplied with good plays, can always be .a vigorous and going concern" Just this January; the TG-ATS and CLT initiated a three-day in¬ dustry-wide conference, the main object of which was to put more show’s on the road,- certainly the Opera Reviews Historical Pageants ~ Continued from page 79 ■ upcoming semester will mark the fourth season for “Chucky,” which played to about .56.000 patrons in 1956, and the 10th season for “Hills.” Prospects of “Colony” continuing have been shaky because of a shortage of funds, but a campaign has been launched to secure the capital needed to reopen the oldest of the historical pageants next June. “Colony” had a deficit of about $11,000 on last summer's op¬ eration, but that will be covered almost entirely by an appropriation of $10,000 from the State of North Carolina. In addition, $15,000 is needed for pre-opening expenses, which is the purpose of the fund-raising tam- I paign. Last year marked the sec¬ ond successive losing season for j “Colony,” which the Roanoke. Is- j land Historical Assn., producer of the pageant, intends presenting for j its 19th outing next June 27-Sept, : 6. Attendance in 1958 was 32.117, an approximate 11% drop from 1957. Also, hard hit last year were "Kingdom” and “Horn.” Reopen¬ ing dates haven’t been set yet for either of the two shows. “King¬ dom,” in its second season last mer, played to about 20.000 pa¬ trons, representing a drop of about 20% from 1957. “Horn,” in J its eighth season last summer, played to 23,201 patrons, repre¬ senting a drop of 14*z% from 1957. The board of directors of the i Southern Appalachian Historical! Assn., sponsor of “Horn,” have voted to reduce the budget to $45,- 600 for this year. It was $65,000 last year. Pledges have also been received covering $19,500 needed to mount the production for the up¬ coming season. “Glory,” which suffered a near- 55% decline in attendance last year as compared to 1957, is report¬ edly definite'torteopen this year. Attendance in 1958, the 12th sea¬ son for “Glory,” was 40,005. The 1958 drop in attendance for “Foun¬ ders” and “Wilderness,” the two shows definitely not reopening, was 91% and nearly 34%, respectively. “Wilderness,” in its fourth season, last summer, played to 27,300 pa¬ trons and “Founders” played to 9,024 patrons. Attendance for the first. “Con¬ federacy” season was 28,000. Re¬ garding the pioheer “Colony,” Richard E. Jordan, general man¬ ager of the operation, has asserted that the Waterside Theatre, where the drama is berthed, is in bad shape and that serious considera¬ tion should be given to erecting a new theatre for the production, since repairing the present site ’“would be money wasted” (METROPOLITAN, N. Y.) Composed during the disillusion¬ ment following World War I, this work was premiered in Berlin in 1925, in Philadelphia under Leo¬ pold Stokowski’s direction in 1931 and was given a presentation some years ago at the N. Y. City Center. It now reaches the Met with built- in “challenge”: technically to the orchestra and cast, financially to the Rudolf Bing regime, artistic¬ ally to the public. How much adventure is involved after 38 years? Enough. Necessar¬ ily the Met is mostly bread-and- butter motivated. “Wozzeck” not only requires rehearsals unto de¬ ficit but dares a starkly miserable tale sung “outside” the tonal scales and conventional theatricality of opera. Opening night there were no cast bows until the finale (10:15), but at each return to the pit con¬ ductor Karl Boehm was given tribute. The arduous and agonizing rehearsals could not but be appre¬ ciated. The trite remark about “Wozzeck” is that its score is diffi¬ cult. Its musical peaks perhaps lie in the instrumental fugues, rather than in-“song.” Add that with three acts of five scenes each, this, is also a stage¬ hands “challenge.” Some of the scenes are remarkably curt for so rebundant a medium as opera. Some of the roles, as the drum major, are more pantomimic than singing and there is hardly a con¬ ventional aria to be heard, though Eleanor Steber, a dramatically ver¬ satile diva these. days, has a few extended passages of introspection. Singers are subordinated to score and story, as in Wagner, and in a real sense the orchestra is the true and only star. Excellent is Hermann Uhde as the unheroic hero, a suffering vegetable, a doomed victim of callous forces. Pushed around, humiliated, de¬ graded and finally cuckolded, this Prussian private endures mutely more than operaticallv and expires cleansing himself in the lalre from the blood of the murder of his unfaithful mistress. Call “Wozzeck” a protest against modern inhumanity.* In its cryptic, caricatured way it achieves a spe¬ cial impact upon an audience. Berg used his atonal Schoenburg-like music to heighthen the .sense of poor suckers. wandering helplessly in a world of fanatics, hysterics and guilt-ridden cheats. Suffice that ttfe Met has done a brave thing. The opera critics have unfurled the pennants cf champ¬ ionship. Everybody can feel virtu¬ ous. The opening audience last Thursday (5) that stayed to cheer at the end even sounded a few, hesitant cries of “Bing.” At a guess there may now follow in the town a wave of chi-chi table talk helpful to music, the Met-and even per¬ haps the boxoffice of so gruesome an entertainment. A skeptic might wonder aloud if there is not a small parallel to cer¬ tain abstract paintings and poetry, often more hailed as art than pa¬ tronized as enjoyment But for the nonce this is commendable, cour¬ ageous and highly effective experi¬ ment, cancelling the idea that ex¬ periment is a monopoly of 55th Street and the Ford Foundation. The Met has its own Francis Goelet Foundation, whose funds paid for “Wozzeck.” Herbert Graf had his. elements of stagecraft well disciplined for the opening. The rehearsals showed in the smoothness. Only one small stage fluff was to be noted. Caspar Neher and David Hayes as design- ere were not always in harmony with the mood of the tragedy, being rather too pretty in their sketches. This is one more opera with English text (by. Vida Harford and Eric BlaQkall after George Bueeh- ner) and the English is occasional¬ ly understandable. Miss Steber who was criticized for not enunci¬ ating in “Vanessa” is improved this time. It is Karl Dcench as the half- mad doctor who mangles text, making sense only of fas-cin-at-ing- ly, though he mimes the role with a skill worthy of Alvin Epstein. Land. Dialogues of the Carmelites Vienna, Feb. 24. • Production of Vienna State Opera. Opera in three acts (17 scenes) by Francis Poulenc. Book by George Bernanes, Ger¬ man translation by Peter Funk, after the play "Song at the Scaffold.* In leading roles: Alfred PoeH, Irmgard 'Seefried, Ivo Zidek. Eiisrbeth Hoengen, Hilde Zadek, Chiistl Goltz. Rosette Anday, Annelie* Rothenberger and Anton Der- mota. Directed by Margarethe Walhnann; settings, Georges Wakbewitsch; musical direction, Heinrich Holreiser. At Vienna State Opera. This one. looks to win a place on the repertory, here, at least for a time. Francis Poulenc opera with its macabre theme was presented by Austro-American Margarethe Wallmann, who produced the opera previously in other cities, made full use. of the Vienna Stat- oper facilities. She, as well as the management deserve praise for ex¬ panding the preponderantly clas¬ sical repertory. It’s an enrichment. Policy of mixing in more new works will be continued. Under the authoritative baton of Heinrich Holreiser the intricate score was executed without a noticeable flaw. Irmgard Seefried in the lead as the nun “Blanche” again proved her top-grade qual¬ ities. All in all this premiere, the first one here in quite a while, was a success. Maas. Tossy Spivakovsky (CARNEGIE HALL, N. Y.) Being a longhair composer is sometimes tough. Few living com¬ posers are more highly regarded in this country than Roger Sessions. Yet it took 24 years before his violin concerto would be per¬ formed by a great virtuoso, under a top conductor with a great orch¬ estra. The cGhgerto was called “the apotheosis of^complexity” by some and “unplayable” by others but though it may have its pitfalls for the performer it is not difficult to listen to. There is much lyricism, passion and intensity and the third move¬ ment has tendernes. The finale, a cadenza full of rhythmic trust and spiciness, is brilliant and as a whole the concerto is ^ most dis¬ tinguished achievement. There is hope that from now on it will be heard more often. Tossy Spivakovsky, the soloist, played with virtuosity, his phras¬ ing impeccable, his tone full of subtle shadings and this brilliant performance moved him right up to the top of today’s violinists. Flanked by “Leonore” No. 3 and the Tschaikovsky 5th—everyone in the audience was pleased with the Bernstein program and the orch¬ estra played remarkably well in spite of the heavy schedule which generally makes itself felt towards the end of the season. Goth. ■ - (CARNEGIE HALL, N.Y.) A great British arust, Myra Hess, paid a tribute to a life-long Amer¬ ican friend who had died a year ago—Mrs. Frederick T. Steinway. The. tribute w r as the delicately played Schumann piano concerto, which the ccmposer wrote for his wife, Clara and to which the Dame Commander of the British Empire brought feminine grace deep spiri¬ tual quality, charm and culture •which more than anything else are her trademark. The National Orchestra Associ¬ ation, John Barnett conducting, gave her valid support even if it wasn’t on the same l?vel of the pianist’s.playing and showed even more weaknesses in the reading of the Brahm s 4Li and the first per¬ formance of a Cuban composer Au- relio de La Vega. His “Elegy” for strings alone is suggestive of Schoenberg’s “Verklaerte Nacht” and otherwise has not much to make it remarkable or even dis¬ tinguished. Goth. Pierre Monteux (CARNEGIE HALL, N.Y.) Performing under the baton of octogenarian ieere Monteux, Feb. 28, the N. Y. Philhar¬ monic was in rare form as a completely sold-out house cheered the band, its guest maestro and pianist Rudolf Serkin. Monteux was on the podium pinch-hitting for the ailing Dimitri Mitropoulos, who was to have done a four-week guest stint before a heart attack removed him from the active list. The 84-year old batonist, busy, all over the western world as a guest leader, still extracts more verve and more dynamic climaxes out of the sidemen than many a younger maestro. He does it with such ease, such lack of effort, but with an authority virtually without equal today. All was well-planned, orderly, yet he engendered excite¬ ment that thrilled every listener. Serkin was first-rate as he key¬ boarded Beethoven’s oft - played “Emperor” concerto, and with Monteux leading a sympathetic ac¬ companiment, they pulled the fire out of the chestnut Berlioz* Symphonie Fantastique, a score for which Monteux has demonstrated affinity for decades, brought a memorable evening of music-making to an incandescent close. Wien.