Good Cheer In The Theaters
SHIPLEY, JOSEPH T.
On STAGE By Joseph T. Shipley Good Cheer In the Theaters Things are looking up in the theater. The gloom of the past few seasons has been dispelled. Along Broadway, amid the usual sprinkling of...
...Cocteau has, however, added one scene from the legend which is not in extant Greek dramas, a piquant meeting of Oedipus and the Sphinx--and "Club Theater" has introduced a new actress of imposing stature as the Sphinx...
...Along Broadway, amid the usual sprinkling of bad or vulgar plays, there are deserved hits, controversial plays, and a goodly number of musicals...
...she has stage presence, excellent range, a quick mind to grasp the nuances of the role, and an unquestioned authority in the playing...
...Carmen Capalbo has struggled manfully with the material, but the present version is considerably less than Gay...
...Uptown at the President Theater, a ten-week run of Gilbert and Sullivan plays4 is bringing charmingly fresh design and rich comedy to the greatest comic operettas of all time...
...English by Mare Blilz-slein...
...Presented by T. Edward HambletoD and Norris Houghton...
...Blitzstein had trouble finding English to fit Kurt Weill's music...
...3 The Golden Apple...
...Music by Jerome Moross...
...Blitzstein's is the worst of the various "book and lyrics" adaptations of Brecht, all of which are inferior to the original of John Gay, whose light and delightful work of art was turned into a heavy social document by the German...
...but in the township of Angel's Roost and the metropolis of Rhododendron, 1900, we see the ancient story cast its glow upon life today...
...Off Broadway, there are surgings of fresh power and strivings for art--not all successful, but all welcome signs of adventurousness and youth...
...The French love to repeat the old Greek stories, frequently adding a sermon of their own...
...Most amusing is the Siren episode, swirling by the Goona-Goona lagoon in a parody of the South Sea paradise dreams of the 1900s: "Under the bamboo tree, I'll bamboozle you and you'll bamboozle me...
...1 The Infernal Machine...
...there are more lilts to the fancy and jogs to the delighted memory than in a month of musicals uptown...
...Gay worked with ridicule and laughter...
...Louise Troy is a truly vital performer...
...The Threepenny Opera2 is a Marc Blitzstein adaptation of Bert Brecht's German version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera...
...This is a golden operetta...
...2 The Threepenny Opera...
...1 The American Savoyards in Cilbcrl and Sullivan Repertoire...
...Reminiscent yet remarkably up-to-date, evocative of the legendary past yet fresh as tomorrow's dew, The Golden Apple is a tour de force that theatrical skill has turned into a triumph...
...By Jean Coeleau...
...Presented by Carmen Capalbo and Stanley Chase, At the Theater dc Lys...
...Directed by Dorothy Raedlcr...
...Directed by Norman Lloyd...
...Among the attractive off-Broadway dramas is The Infernal Machine,1 Jean Cocteau's retelling of the Oedipus legend...
...he is so happy with a rhyme that reason is often neglected...
...Brecht sought through caricature for revolt...
...As they seek an impartial judge, Paris, sleek salesman from the big city, comes down in a gay balloon...
...At the Phoenix Theater...
...There are ten weeks of undiluted delight for Savoyards at the President...
...The company is superb...
...As the play begins, the three "goddesses," matrons of Angel's Roost, sit like the three fates beside the bored Helen...
...The lyrics throughout are cleverly rhymed...
...The Columbia University production of Gay's own work will be discussed in this space later...
...Presented by the Club Theater (115 West Fifty-second Street...
...More ambitious are the two downtown theaters that have put on musicals...
...He dances most of his role, and all the words throughout the play are sung...
...As in the legend, the contest comes--for the best cook...
...Of the large and lively cast, there is space to mention only Kaye Ballard as Helen (of the boredom and the torch), Priscilla Gillette as the faithful Penelope, Bibi Osterwald as Venus, the still surprisingly agile Jack Whiting as Hector, and Stephen Douglas as Ulysses...
...By John i.atouchr...
...Hanya Holm's choreography moves gaily along, and the music of Jerome Moross rounds out an altogether delightful evening...
...Music by Kurt Weill...
...Cross town to the Phoenix Theater for brightness and laughter...
...At the President Theater...
...She should not be very long off Broadway...
...I still prefer Sophocles...
...From the Mondrian design of the opening curtain through the lures that lie in wait for the victorious soldiers, the settings and the staging are deft, tasteful and fresh...
...John Latouche and his associates have found the golden touch to frame The Golden Apple.3 It seems odd to set the figures of the Trojan War on Mount Olympus, Washington, almost three thousand years after the great conflict...
...Gay's work is not mentioned on the program...
...In Rue Knapp it has a comedian who bids fair to overtake Martyn Green, in Norman Paige a lead who would once have been called a "matinee idol," charm in Sally Knapp, excellent voices--which let you hear the words --in principals and chorus, and in Dorothy Raedler a director who knows the traditional routine but dares to make innovations--keeping us always expectant and constantly rewarded...
Vol. 37 • April 1954 • No. 14
