Mae West is Great in "Catharine Was Great"
Mae West is Great in "Catharine Was Great" TAKE ANOTHER LOOK! "CATHERINE WAS GREAT." By and with Mae West. Pre-tented by Miekael Todd. At the Shubert Theatre. Those seeking money for producing...
...But behold...
...then the play would, he repotted, have been a howling success...
...AT STRAND Charlie Barnet and his orchestra, which played to capacity crowds during the holiday week-end, and broke an eight-year Strand attendance record, will be held over for a 2nd week starting today...
...Come to my room this evening," says Catherine, "and well talk Turkey...
...One critic lamented that Mae West didn't kid the part...
...But it's a truly accomplished actress thst tskes us for the ride...
...The diabTue — Park Avenue mustard o na Coney Island hot dog—makes it ebnr...
...Unlike many a more serious actress—say Miss Hepburn, who is never aught but Miss Hepburn—Mae West can take herself with a sense of humor at good times...
...and as the semi-harbaric Russian Empress, great in her desire to shine as a civilized monarch, great in her lusts—great fn her breaches of decorum as she wants her men out of theirs Mae West presents s supreme self-caricature...
...The audience, wiser than such reviewers, howls...
...Here is s polished actress, with a aense of timing that covers both body and voice, aure, easy, accomplished in her ways — and with an understanding of the theatre...
...ft erll be hterd every Thursday from 1»:1» to 10 HO p. m. beginning September 7. The cast includes Barbara Benedict, Gertrude HofTmann, Roger Sul livan and David Nile...
...And when the play opened, the daily press looked with solemn eyes, seriously weighed the portrait of the Russian Catherine —and somewhat naturally were bewildered...
...Mae West, in "Catherine Was Grest," is a case in point...
...alwati rnunDAr-NSW Mff rO SI«IfS There is the fsmiliar saying "history repeats itself...
...He arrives with n?w* of the warring Turk...
...In th* opening •ketch of "Always Yesterday" there ia the comparison of Philip Crane, 20-year-old upstate New Yorker, now atatiasssd at an army haa* hi the South Pa shit, to David, eon of J****, which the Bible tells ¦ a killed a Hon and destroyed ¦ Philistine "Always YMUrdajr" Is written by aWger Barn van and directed by DavwfMiWs...
...For the mock dignity of Catherine's first entrance betrays at once the extravaganza tone of the play...
...With the seasoned drama critics war-borne, it seems at least wise that the public try not to rely on the daily press reviews...
...sad from this phrase stems the story of "A/ways Yesterday...
...As the play was brewing, those mysterious whispers that (often breathed by Cypress stents) carry: advance tidinga of Broadway whirls, announced that Mae West hsd written a serious drama of Catherine the Great, and was going to act the part "straight...
...Those seeking money for producing plays aay that now "anything goea on Broadway...
...On screen is the Warner Bros, picturisation of the hilarious Broadway success, "Arsenic and Old Lace," stsrring Cary Grant with Raymond Massey, Jack Carson and Peter Lorre...
...To all who know the "Come up V see me sometime" technique, this is its richest travesty...
...Catherine's first lover (in the play) is Prince Pot?mkin...
...Pi** the distant past, incidents are selected which bear a resemblance to car-rent happening...
...And bo yfriend, and Hilda Simms ax to see the woman of prey of yesteryear in all her lush abandon, daunting, brazen, unabashed, the old advice will still suffice: Go West, young man—Mae West...
...An' there arc gorgeous moments of superb acting technique, in the shading tones with which Mae West—when the knock on the door comes as she is scoldirg a modiste, or sharing a violent embrace—invariably calls "Entah...
...The costumes, but even more the settings, announce the carirature...
...The play is merely a vehicle...
Vol. 27 • September 1944 • No. 37
