Blackbirds Chirp a Lively Song and Dance
SHIPLEY, JOSEPH T.
"Blackbirds" Chirp a Lively Song and Dance The Week on the Stage By Joseph T. Shipley A BIRDIE! "BLACKBIRDS." 1934 Edition of Lew Leslie's all colored revue. Book mainly by Nat Uorfman. At the...
...By George Sklar and Albert Maltz...
...The Theatre Union—not only for its aims, but for its achievement—deserves whole-hearted support...
...At the Civic Repertory...
...it does not argue...
...In a sense a routine revue, and not reaching the peaks a few recent shows have attained, "Blackbirds" is lively entertainment for winter evenings, like a good dose of Harlem for Broadway...
...it opposes two vital forces in the world, and lets the audience see them in inevitable conflict...
...Picketing against sailor scabs (who have been old they are loadng soap), the strikers are winning over the German sailors when the slaughterous militia arrive...
...Peace on Earth": A Great Fight Against War PEOPLE MAY CRY "PEACE...
...T. Box will) and choir, and the suave foot-work of Bill Robinson, punctuate a number of clever skits and burlesques: "Maedchen Without Uniform...
...Pete carries the fight to the campus—and is railroaded to the chair for murder...
...J. T. S. At Fox Brooklyn "The Charming Deceiver," in which Constance Cummings has her first starring role...
...and in the whirlwind of Pete's fancies as he awaits death rises ironic play about the pious defenders of things as they are: the social worker, the successful novelist, the distinguished scientist, the bishop ("Christ needs a new cathedral...
...Design for Harlem...
...a good gang travesty, "On the Spot"—that needs a better close...
...a weird apology to Eugene O'Neill, 'Emperor Bones...
...The speedy stir of the last act is a most effective bit of good theatre, mingling snatches of war's coming with episodes of Pete's prosecution and defense, and with the ironic fanta-J sies that sear in the doomed man's vision of society...
...PEACE ON EARTH...
...Dealing honestly with a subject Broadway dismisses as propaganda, it moves by slow but logical, almost inevitable, stages to the swirl then subsiding yet poignant quiet of its conclusion...
...First offering of the Theatre Union...
...and an amusing Gilbert and Sullivan "Mikado in Harlem...
...Peace on Earth" is effective propaganda because it is not propaganda...
...Those who cry "Let there be peace...
...Blackbirds" Chirp a Lively Song and Dance The Week on the Stage By Joseph T. Shipley A BIRDIE...
...The longshoremen of a New England town, a year or so in the future, are striking against the loading of munitions...
...She has been booked to headline the new vaudeville bill at tho Palace Theatre, starting today...
...when, therefore, the return of a reporter friend takes him beyond the campus into contact with life, he is at once caught into the struggle for peace and justice...
...Among the songs that ought to go are "Your Mother's Son-in-Law" and "Concentrate a Little on Love...
...Sylvia Frees to Top New KKO Palace Bill Before leaving for the Coast— and a starring role in Fox Films— Sylvia...
...This will not be her first appearance before the camera, as she has previously starred in many short subjects...
...The owner of the munitions plant is a trustee of Pete's university, about to receive an honorary degree...
...The new "Blackbirds" is a lively show, with much to attract the playgoer...
...Good music, an unusually beautiful chorus, an excellent spiritual singer (J...
...At the Apollo...
...But until such an audience is slowly won, those who are already alive to these values must sustain the work...
...Adam" are the screen attractions at the Fox Brooklyn this week...
...Peter Owens, though a professor, Is both intelligent and courageous...
...Froos, "The Little Princess of Song," is to make a farewell Broadway "in person" appearance...
...The development of the story is by natural steps, involving l'eter ever a little more—as all of us must take sides...
...Peace on Earth" is as stirring a drama as one is likely to see for a long time...
...Plays like "Peace on Earth," excellent drama, and true beyond any special pleading of propaganda, I will widen their audience and gain a solid hold upon those that seek in the theatre an intelligent facing of vital problems...
...must recognise the road...
...Disney's "Lullaby Land," a Silly Symphony in Technicolor, and Ernest Truex in "Mr...
...Although the title of Miss Froos* first feature length motion picture has not been definitely set, she believes it will be "Fox Movietone Follies...
Vol. 16 • December 1933 • No. 25
