On Stage

...The ostentatious homosexuality, therefore, misleadingly suggests that there might once have been a homosexual aspect to the relationship between the two men Lisabeth Bartlett, by the way, is outstanding as the young girl who arouses the dresser's anger, the rest of the supporting cast is not especially memorable THE MANY disappointments of the first half of the season have included the eagerly awaited return to Broad-wayoftwowetl-knownstars First Clau-dette Colbert came back in A Talent for Murder, a silly concoction of fake mystery and contrived comedy Now the great Katharine Hepburn's multiple talents are being wasted at the Ethel Barrymore Theater in something called The West Side Waltz Written by Ernest Thompson, this is really a nonplay It has no compelling story, and worse, it has no interesting characters either Hepburn plays a widowed pianist of about 70 who lives alone in a somewhat run-down apartment on Manhattan's West Side Her name is Margaret Mary Elderdice, and she likes to be called by both of her Christian names She is not really alone because a violin playing spinster named Cara Vamum, portrayed by Dorothy Loudon, lives in the same building and is almost always around?mothering Margaret Mary, bothering her, but also being useful by playing waltzes with her Timid and adoring, Cara obviously hopes she will one day be invited to move in with Margaret Mary Beyond that, Thompson has not provided the violinist with any characteristics that might give her a personality Nor has he given many distinguishing traits to the pianist, besides letting us know that she can become very impatient, even sharp-tongued with those who treat her like an invalid There are three more badly defined participants in West Side Waltz, beginning with Robin Bird (Regina Baff), a thirtyish, attractive looking blond who has discovered after seven years of marriage that her husband is a homosexual She appears because the pianist, while keeping the plaintive violinist from moving in, has advertised for a companion Robin stays around for some time and then goes to live with a young lawyer, Glen Dabrinsky (Don Howard), who isn't on stage long enough for us to determine anything about him Finally, there is the Rumanian superintendent, Serge Barrescu (David Marguhes), who vainly tries to fix a radiator in winter and an air conditioner in summer His peculiarity is to call every woman, including the violin playing spinster, an irresistible beauty The absence of any dramatic evolution notwithstanding, the play does have a clearly indicated physical pro-gession in six scenes, each demarcated by the lowering and raising of the curtain (1) Margaret Mary walks upright and energetically, and although the younger Cara complai ns to Serge about the cold that she fears is a danger to the pianist's health, the first thing Margaret Mary does upon entering is open the window (2) Margaret Mary, still energetic and healthy, needs a cane for walking (3) Margaret Mary needs two canes (4) Margaret Mary, somewhat slowed down, uses a walker (5) Margaret Mary is in a wheelchair (6) Truly an invalid now, Margaret Mary falls from the chair and has great difficulty getting back into it Then comes a moment when we are worried that Thompson is about to add a seventh scene, as epilogue, without the use of the curtain Margaret Mary has managed to show clumsy Cara how to help her lay down on the sofa Cara plays "One More Waltz " Margaret Mary doesn't move We are sure Cara will discover what we already know —that Margaret Mary is dead But she is not dead She suddenly tells Cara to go fetch her toothbrush and take Robin Bird's bed—just for one night, she says So Cara, at least, is happy Actually, she is not alone Long before that point in the evening everyone at the Ethel Barrymore has dismissed Thompson's "play" and begun simply to concentrate on watching Katharine Hepburn Half a second after we have laughed at something she has said, we realize it was her delivery that made the empty words witty One might think that Noel Williams should be credited with directing her beautifully But judging from the job he has done with the rest of the cast, it is obvious Hepburn directed herself...

...Everybody is trying to bring Sir around SuddenK, lite comes back to his body and he is both king Lear and the experienced ham who instinctively recover all the truck of his trade...

...d the pait 427 times, and now cannot remember even the first line That's where the dresser begins his work To an actor-manager, a dresser is more than a valet in charge of preparing the costumes and helping his master don them As Harwood makes sure we understand, being "the guardian of the actor-manager's dressing room" is "a position of great importance and of power" within a company At the same time, the dresser is the always available victim of, or outlet for, every mood of his master Nobodv knows the actor-manager better than his dresser does Sir's is called Norman, and he is an expert While the others believe Sir unable to go on, Norman won't give up What follows is a wonderful psychological-comical duet, where all the theatrical juices that are apt to flow in a backstage dressing room are mixed with a magical touch Paul Rogers (Sir) and Tom Courtenav (Norman) magnificently combine their talents to realize the scheme of the playwright and the director Alternating cajoleries and challenges, throwing in clever diversions and not always truthful statements?a full house [is] waiting"?Norman manages to have Sir sit down in front of his mirror He then persuades him to start putting on make-up, even if Sir begins with black as if he were to play Othello Step by step the dresser succeeds in coaxing his master into getting ready—if not vet entirely in his mind, at least on his face and in his costume—to play Lear A no less irresistible scene occurs in the vvings when curtain is up for King Lear and the King is about to make his entrance At that precise moment, Sir loses all his bearings He doesn't know where he is, he cannot speak, he cannot move From the King Lear stage to the left of the actors at the Brooks Atkin-son, we hear Sir's cue desperateh repeated, then the improvised sentences meant to hide the delay from the pub-lic...

...Soon we hear a great Shakespearean voice resounding, tor shakespearean hams in England could be great shakespearean actors too There also is a marvelous storm scene The stagehand in charge of creating the storm has disappeared, but Sir refuses to play Lear without the clatter So everybody backstage—which for us is frontstage—frenetically moves all the old-fashioned instruments for imitating thunder and tempests This makes the storm much more impressive, infinitely more part of the play, than the unseen taped "special effects" used to remind us from time to time that we are in England during the German air raids Tom Courtenay's Norman is excellent, yet not—as Paul Rogers' Sir is?perfect In the big scene where he is manipulating Sir to have him go on as Lear, and in letting us glimpse the frustration of havingto suffer an unrestricted ego with only a swallow from a hip flask as consolation, the dresser is played superbly But contrary to Rogers, whose hamming is beautifully in character, Courtenay has a tendency to ham it up out of character Sir's death scene provides an example Having finally managed to write the first dedicatory page of the "life story" he never stopped talking about, he lets the dresser read it back to him while he is passing away The page mentions every worker of the stage except the faithful dresser—who now, his master dead, explodes with contradictory feelings of hatred and love It is a powerful scene, yet it leaves an aftertaste of exaggeration More annoying is Courtenay's exaggeration throughout of the dresser's homosexuality, despite the fact that it is relevant only in one scene a violent exhibition of jealousy by Norman against a young female apprentice with whom Sir would be happy to use the couch in his dressing room if he still could The actor-manager is shown as an old lecher who in the past must have seduced many an actress on his casting couch...

...On Stage BROADWAY AT MIDPOINT BY LEO SAUVAGE THANKS TO a British playwright from Cape Town and a British director from Manchester, as the first half of the Broadway season was drawing to a close it received some much-needed sparkle Ronald Harwood's The Dresser, staged by Michael Elliot, is a real jewel of a play Although it may not be a great work of dramatic literature, it affords an evening at the Brooks Atkinson Theater that is refreshingly different from most of those offered on the Great White Way Everyone has heard of the small, mostly Shakespearean repertory companies built around an actor-manager that used to tour English provincial towns The widespread assumption is that they flourished in the last century and expired before World War 1, hav-inglostouttothe"fhckers "Harwood, however, traveled with actor-manager Don Wolfit's Shakespearean troupe in the 1950s And his new woi k concerns one disturbing day, "before curtain up" and "after curtain up," in the life of such a companv The time he chooses is (lie winter of 1942, enabling him lo add the destructions and hardships ol Woild War II to the group's more "nor-mal" vicissitudes But this wasn't nec-cssaiv Certainly we could have done without the poor tokes, like the one built on a civil defense announcement during an air raid "All those who wish to live, uh, leave " The War furnishes Harwood with a starting point (as any number of peace-timeaccidents could have) Shock from an explosion brings an already slightly senile actor-manager to the hospital a few hours before his company is to present King Lear The actor-manager, whom everybody calls only Sir—perhaps because his dream is tobe awarded a title—has not been wounded physically It is just that in the rain, in the center of the town, he started throwing off his clothes Back at the English theater where Sir's company is playing, the actors have come together in his dressing room to discuss the situation There seems to be no choice but to cancel the evening performance when suddenly Sir walks in He has escaped from the hospital because he knows he has something to do tonight, but heis not quite sure of what it is and very much afraid of what it might be Hearing about cancelling the show, he savs no Reminded that kins Leai is scheduled to be put on, he remain, adamant—then panics He has play...