Subversion in the Capital
SCHNEIDER, ALAN
ON STAGE By Alan Schneider Subversion in the Capital Washington The District of Columbia is no longer split solely between Democrats and Republicans, New Frontiersmen and the Old...
...Perched on the upper floor of a popular Georgetown rendezvous, the Captain's Table, the Uniquecorn is celebrating its first anniversary, getting nods from New York and, though not yet unionized, is already on the fringe of the bigtime...
...The current Premise quartet (Barbara Anson, Kipp Currie, Francis Dux, Al Mancini) is somewhat less biting, though still personable...
...It is also hopelessly divided these days between those who swear by the tart dry humor of the Premise—whose Manhattan branch has been amusing New Yorkers since the fall of 1960 —and those who prefer the doublecrostic, musical delights of the Uniquecorn, Washington's most durable brand of distilled licorice and vinegar...
...Their spontaneity is too studied, their imagination congealed by habit...
...Nothing is verboten, neither death nor taxes—nor John Glenn...
...Yet both strike at the foundations of our most sacred institutions and livestock...
...The second team is not as adroit at manipulating the improvisational scalpel...
...The trouble is that it doesn't...
...The Susskind-Khrushchev summit meeting continues to be hilarious, if not quite as fresh as before...
...They kidded the pantings off the sexual behavior in foreign films, wire-tapping, the sanitized Nazi and Japanese war villains on TV...
...Its major source material is, again, unduly predictable: the space race, the big bad Russians, shelters, segregation and, of course, Jack and Jackie...
...But for the most part, the humor is fairly standard and too tame...
...and they made hilarious the once-serious reality of an overbearingly humble David Susskind interviewing an apocalyptically angry Nikita...
...ON STAGE By Alan Schneider Subversion in the Capital Washington The District of Columbia is no longer split solely between Democrats and Republicans, New Frontiersmen and the Old Guard, pro- and anti-Jackie...
...The mood and content of the Premise," the program says, "is subject to change upon an evening's, even a moment's notice...
...Many of the best jokes are local—i.e., the idea of renting out a supply of welldressed and mysteriously important guests for the first half-hour of cocktail parties—but witty enough for non-local consumption...
...There are still some funny character sketches (the girl who treats a chess game in the park as an exercise in analysis...
...Producer-director Theodore J. Flicker was astute enough to open with his New York first team, an agile quartet of three men and a girl who can improvise on any theme or situation suggested by the customers...
...Its members apparently do not trust their own technique of "instant theater...
...The Uniquecorn's smoke-filledroom atmosphere is familiar to Washingtonians, permanent or transient: Drinks rattle between the lyrics, and the amateur exuberance of the company is compensated for by the professional dirty laughs of the customers...
...the guy whose job it is to keep his finger on the button...
...Spiced with sophisticated banter and a liberal outlook, poshly packaged and priced, it has managed to attract almost everyone who is anyone in the capital...
...Some of the musical numbers have genuine wit, notably "Thy Neighbor and Thy Shelter," a modern madrigal which wistfully suggests that it might be more convenient to mow down your neighbor now without waiting for the confusions of actual fallout...
...Neither the Uniquecorn nor the Premise, both thrivingly subversive organizations, has been investigated by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities...
...The performers, all fervent and youthful extroverts, include two white-collar addicts in mugging— college professor Arch Lustberg and mathematician-actor Bill Holter —plus Jean Anne, a lively brunette, and Sally-Jane Heit, a large blonde reminiscent of Carol Charming...
...The Premise, located in a bright, liquor-serving, off-Broadway-like corner of the Shoreham Hotel, opened in early January and continues to pack in the spring tourists, the youngsters and the dough...
...The Uniquecorn, less sophisticated and clever, though also less pretentious (a bare platform stage and practically no props), somehow emerges as a fresher if less exotic plant...
...The group suffers a bit from inexperience and lack of variety, but it has the saving grace of unabashed sincerity and enthusiasm, and this pulls it over the hurdles and through the thinnest material...
Vol. 45 • April 1962 • No. 9
