Evening Star Newspaper, April 2, 1933, Page 43

Stage—Screen Music—Radio MARY BRIANirL Mt SSING”— EARLE " FREDERIC MARCH VSIGN OF THE CROSSY MET Two Hours of ROPOLITAN One Actor Likely to Prove Boring But George Cohan, in "Pigeons and Pcople." Managed to Carry 1t Off pretty Well—Some By E. de S Thoughts of Changes ZORGE M. COHAN proved to us here during the past week that he is one of the " few actors who can make a play his very own. While Walter Hampden, John Barry- more, Otis Skinner and many other great names of the theater have in the past linked them- selves with famous characteriza- tions, so that after a time they . seemed one and the same (Hamp- den as Cyrano and Barrymore as Hamlet, for instance), still, no one has done just exactly what Cohan did in “Pigeons and People”—hold the stage for two solid hours and’ never give in for more than a minute or two to any of the other glonyers‘ After all, in “Cyrang” xanne had her moments, zd heaven knows that Ophelia .dnd the King and the een’ and Tolonius have their moments in “Hamlet!” Mr. Cohan’s role, though, in his lajest' play was never anything but Parker and himself, and he pever let the audi- ence think of ahything but Parker or himeelf, -+ This was a stunt. And, accord- ing to-fiany, a good one. It gave Mr: Cohan a chance to browse around in his philosophy, to sing 2 song, to da a dance and to behave himself as he is most fond of behaving. The play began at nowhere and arrived at nowhere —and it left you with the pleasant opinion that pigeons in the park have a much better time than we do. We venture to state, however, | that no other actor in this coun- | try could get away with such a stunt. We venture to state, also, | that those who do not know Mr. | Cohan, and do not know his inter- | esting theatrical history or what | he has contributed to stagecraft and stage wisdom, may have been slightly annoyed at the proceed- | ings. The reason for this is that in| the past few years the theater | has grown to be more of a com- munity spirited affair than it ever was before. It has made us be- lieve that good plays are those in which human values are presented not through monologues or solilo- quies, but through an exchange of ideas between two or more per- sons. We have grown accus- tomed to seeing actors fight their mental fights on the half and half, | rather than, as Mr. Cohan did, | giving out his questions and get- | ting back his answers only| through himself. | No character in Mr. Cohan’s | play, other than Parker, was worth two nickels. The author put out his theories on a string and got them back with scarcely a mur- mur from his fellow beings. When he got out onto the stage he was there for good. No counter frritant was presented; nobody who could bandy words around. Therefore, Mr. Cohan bandied %rcr=s with himself. And the play eventually was swallowed up in Parker’s brain and no one else’s. The method was a novel one and vastly successful, according to many of the intelligentsia. It brought to this reviewer’s mind, however, a lesson that the modern theater has taught us—namely, | that we are well rid of the star | syst For, in spite of the fact | that Mr. Cohan’s performance was brilliant, that he spun out his deeds and his fancies with clear-cut precision, that his smile and his coat and his hat and his wandering and restless spirit were as familiar and pleasant as they have always been, the play itsclf seemed to cry out for| strength and for the help of some | onc other than the main per- former. ‘ The films have taught us the meaning of the word co-operation. So have the Irish Players and the Tocater Guild and Eva Le Gal- 1 we are most pleased when, | | for instance, we are privileged to sec an “Alice in Wonderland” (one of the current theatrical joys in ennes and Schildkrauts and the w right, xpokenfl:wt: and in Stage Production. . Melcher. their wigs and their masks. We are pleased, too, when such a charming actress as Ina Claire allows herself to play the game with the rest of the cast in - raphy,” where she is technicall the star, but in which she prefers the play to be more important than the player. We are used now to the Paul Munis who pro- claim that what they do shall not be shouted to the skies except as they affect the rest of the play and as they carry out the mean- ing of the plot. And we are used to the Lunts and the Fontannes and the Cowards, each a star in capitulate to and enter into the spirit of the theater as brothers and sisters in arms rather than knights and ladies carrying their own plumes high. We are used, in other words, to the theater of many rather than to the theater of one. On the screen, too, when Kay Francis has a real co-partner as she had in George Brent in “The Keyhole,” we are more satisfled than when she plays almost completely a “starring role.” Miss Pickford has given in to the trend of the times by hiring a veteran and popular actor such as Leslie Howard to play opposite her, instead of doing as she did in the old days, get- ting some white-haired boy and planting him there as a foil rather than as an actor. And the sudden disappearance of Charles Farrell proves that he had to have his Janet Gaynor, and that with- out her he is celluloidly lost. This juggling of players is a healthy sign, and the giving in of tt.he star system a healthy sign, 00. Mr. Cohan will always be one of the world’s most natural actors. When he is on the stage you are apt to forget that there is a stage. His ease is extraordinary, his facial twists consummately de- signed, and his walk and talk at- tuned to the most natural strings of everyday bearing. Nevertheless, we should have preferred him in a play, and not a monologue. Al- though the character of Parker was 'an interesting one, it never probed deep enough to become either wonderfully great or won- derfully sympathetic. He was a nice, genial bench-sitter, “straight cuckoo,” who came into the play as he went out, and who never allowed the rest of his copatriots to get under his skin. He was, however, all Cohan— and two hours of any one is too much all at once. Even the divine Sarah must have palled if she| sat on a park bench and talked for that long. Comedian ew York) in which the Le Gal- utchinsons are snowed under by AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star, WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 2, 1933. CHESTER MORRIS GENEVIEVE TOBIN SINFERNAL MACHINEY CoLUMBIA Students in Debut Tonight. TEB Clifford Brooke Academy of Stage Training in the Dramatic Arts will present its first-term students to- night at the National Theater in scenes from espeare’s Ruwul comedy, “As You Like -It;” Richard | Brinsley Sheridan’s famous comedy, “The School for Scandal” and ‘“The Charm_School” by Alice Duer Miller A nmw’l‘{e f Washington’ large number of ’s promising stage aspirants, among whom are & number of the younger set, will make their stage debut in this perform- ance. All the students in the academy will participate. Prominent parts will be taken by Charlotte Mayo, Sarah Pol- lard, Lilla La Garde, Louise Harrison Gwynn, Charlotte Patterson, Maud Howell Smith, Maxine Doyle, Ruth Simpson, Gwendolyn Tonahill, Helen Ryan, Emma Ginn Baker, Barbara Davis, Helen Shields, Maurice Joyce, Isham Keith, Alice Green, J. B. Davis, Jeanne Butler, Edwin Rice, George H. Calvert, jr.; Howard Whitfield, Edward A. Finlayson, R. T. Kreuzberg, Walter Studdiford, Wilbur T. Betts, Marshall Baggett, Theodore Tenley, Fritz Firey, Theodore Bray, Frank H. Cogswelil, Grace Harmon, Lucie Sharp, Roselle Mangan, Mary Murphy, Jacquelin Tow- m‘t Barbara Ann Culley and Louise Stage managers are Howard Whit- field, Ruth Harsha McKenzie and Ed- ward A. Finlayson. Mr. Brooke will direct and stage this entertainment. . Full Production at Fox. 'OLLOWING a temporary cessation of activities, the Fox Hollywood | studios, both at Westwood and in Hollywood proper, are once again in full production. At Fox Movietone City, at Westwood, the wheels of cine- matic industry are turning under the direction of Winfleld R. Sheehan, vice president in charge of production. At| this plant. “My Lips Betray,” Lilian | Harvey's first American production, as| well as “Five Cents a Glass,” have just been put into work. “Pive Cents a Glass” is Prank Craven's first original story for the screen, which he will direct as well. Marian Nixon and Norman Foster are featured in this production. “Adorable” and “Pil e” picked up where they had left off. Janet Gay- nor and Henry Garat, international stage and screen star, are being fea- tured in the former, a light musical romance, while Heather Angel, Norman Foster, Henrietta Crosman and Marjan Nixon are co-featured in the latter. ‘This week “The Power and the Glory,” with Spencer Tracy and Col- leen Moore; “Hold Me Tight” with James Dunn and Sally Ellers, and “I Loved You Wednesday,” with Warner Baxter and Elissa Landi, were put into production. At the Hollywood studio, under the aegis of Sol M. Wurtzel, executive pro- ducer, “The Lady Cop,” from the story by Judith Ravel and Lowell Brentano, will soon be started as a part of a schedule of 20 features in English and six motion pictures in foreign lan- guages. Two Spanish films, “Songs of the South Seas,” starring Jose Mojica, grand opera star and concert tenor, and “The Romantic Widow,” ‘starring Catalina Barcena, were placed in pro- duction this week. Girl Scouts' Choice. ANET GAYNOR, Fox Film star, has been chosen by 300,000 members of the National Girl Scouts as the most Miss Gaynor is at work opposite Henry Garat in “Adorable.” l.oge has been ‘chosen the screen’s leading femi- three times before in na- FRIEDA INESCORT VWHEN LADIES ME NAT/ONAL B Automobile and Aviation News KAREN MORLEY VGABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE?® PALACE RALPH BELLAMY SDESTINATION UNKNOWN” RIALTO BRUCE CABOT - FAY WRAY ROBERT ‘ARMSTRONG VKING KONS” — KEITH'S DIANA WYNYARD ~ LEWIS STONE “MEN MUST FIGHT"—FOX A WOII_]EI’S Playwright T has been said of Rachel Crothers, whose latest play is “When Ladies Meet,” Mat she is, above all things, & woman's playwright; that she writes about women and for wom- en. And an examination of her previous works as well as a close-up of her cur- rent play, reveals that to a great extent this claim is justifiable. Certainly there are few authors writing for the theater today who understand women as Miss Crothers understands them—their un- suspected weaknesses, their sudden strength and the strange mental twists that come to them in moments of stress. “It seems to be so0,” Miss Crothers, questioned about this point, admitted. “I suppose I am rather preoccupled with women. They are so interesting, cspe- cially today, in the midst of the new mental and spiritual richness that has descended upon them. I have been ac- cused of barely sketching in my man characters, instead of developing them fully, as it is claimed I do the women. I do not think that it is that I admire masculine psychology more as much as it is that I know the feminine traits better. “In the case of the two women in | ‘When Ladies Meet’ and the one man who is the object of their mutual adora- tion I am particularly accused of treat- ing my man character shabbily. I am said to have put him into a situation | that could never arise—that a man the dramatist’s imagination. That is not true. It could happen, and proba- bly has happened many times, and un- doubtedly it has been handled by my fictitious Rogers Woodruff and carried off with no greater feminine fact than is displayed by my two ladles in the For all that, however, the fact re- mains that, as has been claimed so often before, Miss Crothers remains the woman’s champion in the theater, and the response of the feminine theater- goers, as evidenced at matinee perform- ances where the male attendance is swamped to the extent of about fifty to one, is full and appreciative. They g0 to see themselves dissected and with | frue cunning by the playwright who knows them so well. They go to laugh at their own faults and failings, which Miss Crothers knows how to make so amusing in the theater, and to bask in the knowledge that femininity will al- ways triumph—in a Rachel Crothers play. . Paramount Buys Two Plays. PARAMOUNT has purchased Noel Coward’s stage hit, “Design for Liv- | ing,” and James Hagan's “One Sunday Afterncon,” which also is having a suc- cessful Broadway run. Screen produc- would never allow to arise—outside of 4 tion will start soon. In Was]\ington Theaters This Week. NATIONAL—“When Ladies Meet.” o’clock. GAYETY—“Beer Brew Girls,” burlesque. evening. PALACE—“Gabriel Over the White House.” evening. Tomorrow night at 8:20 This afternoon and This afternoon and EARLE—“Girl Missing,” and vaudeville, with Morton Downey. This afternoen and evening. LOEW’S FOX—“Men Must Fight,” and vaudeville, This after- noon and evening. R-K-O KEITH'S—“King Kong.” This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“Sign of the Cross.” evening. This afternoon and RIALTO—“Destination Unknown.” This afternoon and evening. COLUMBIA—"“Smoke Lightning” today. starts tomorrow. “Infernal Machine” Wanted to Be Bad. ‘WANT to be bad,” insisted Claud- Byl Empress beaut but cruel consort sixth d last of the Caesars, in Mille’s wood, players under contract to every studio in the film capital were eligible. for the role. And even stars fight to {et themselves jobs in De Mille's pic- ures. That was part of Miss Colbert's reason for wanting to be Poppaea. The other part, she admits, was that she was tired of good-girl roles. Since her entrance to the movies, after ing stage success on Broadway, she has never played & role that called for more than mild naughtiness. Being too good & gal in her roles was beginning to get on her nerves, she said. De Mille had interviewed over a score of outstanding woman players when Claudette came along and demanded a screen test in the role. De Mille watched her while she took the test. Then he turned to the cameramen. “You don't have to bother to develop that negative,” he told them. “I've seen enough.” Claudette got the role. Lit:le Women™ Saturda; CLA!Y.! TREE MAJOR'S special dramatization of Louisa Alcott's childhood classic, “Little Women,” will be presented at the National Theater next Saturday morning. Mrs. Major’s play takes child audiences through the first part of the story, and ends before the sadness of Beth's death and the love affairs of the girls. ‘The characters will be portrayed by popular members of the Children’s The- ater. Clare Tree Major will appear in the cast doubling as Hannah, the Marches’ maid, and Aunt March, the difficult relative of the girls. Boyish Jo, who sells her hair to help her family in time of trouble; Beth, the delicate and gentle member of the March household; impetuous Amy, ‘whose girlish problems provide constant me; t, and lovely Meg, the first really to fall in love—here are the four girls who have had more read- |ers than any other four in literature. Kindly Mrs. March, stern Aunt March, big-hearted Hannah, and the dashing Lawrie all help to make “Little Wom- | en” the most popular play in the Chil- dren’s Theater series, which is being presented in Washington under the aus- pices of the Women's International League. Kaufman Writes Comady. 'EORGE S. KAUFMAN has at last been persuaded to write an orig- inal screen comedy. In partnership with Robert Sherwood, he will write the story of Eddie Cantor’s next pic- ture for Samuel Goldwyn. Authoring some of the most success- ful plays the theater has seen in this generation, Kaulman has refused to write screen originals. Nor would he consider a trip to the Hollywood stu- dios. He has been content to rest-on the laurels of “Dinner at Eight,” “The Royal Family,” “Of Thee “Once in a Lifetime” and Crackers,” selling the screen rights to those vehicles at the proper time and letting the films do the best they could with them. His work, claimed, Placing the Cause for Lowly State of Theater One Writer Blames the Disappearance of “Peanut Galleries™—Visioning the Annual Selection . of the Pulitzer Prize Play Committee. By Percy Mercury is to discover that the Ameri- its, ur Mann, retired N. Y. critic of the of 6,000 , that the Shubert Cor. or his vaudeville performances, a wage considerably in excess of that paid to the average Square theaters. You can take it or lel.velilt eltl’;e: as & bit of nose-thumbing or a lapse from author’s custor by u:s mary * K ok X IN its disposal of this year's diadem the Pulitzer committee will be em- barrassed by the large number of bald {foreheads waiting to be covered. Cnly two dramas, so far as I can judge, and no revue whatever, deserve the crown- ers’ grave consideration as successor to “Of Thee I Sing.” “Cavalcade.” of course, is disqualified because it is an immigrant, and also because, in the committee’s probable opinion, it 1s not a play. “Farewell to Arms” and “State Fair” are likewise ineligible to wear the royal chaplet, being of ignoble or Holly- wood birth.. “Red Planet,” a serious ex- | cursion to Mars, was gathered to its | to see it, and “We, the People,” also de- | ceased, seems to have been a tub- thumper rather than a work of art. “Alien Corn” is more Miss Katherine Cornell than it is drama, and the Theater Guild's “American Dream” was a little too poisonous to be anointed with the holy oils. This unofficial pro- cess of elimination discards “Twentieth Singer MORTON DOWNEY, Holding the bill-topper’s position tn th Extle siage prograsa. this week. . | fathers ere the praetors had a chance | Hammond. Century” as merely some . and its authors, might pooh-pooh the were it awarded to them, as '.!ul?; 1 Mr, Lewis did in another dee partment. I should not be surprised if * ;- cl‘nlr‘:‘ heery wheedling ’s cl W] and 's well-behaved Mr, Bankhead's * appeal to the a star- led heroine ph it overcoming most irritating crisis that can oceur SR i Ly EE 5o, fhsil 3 ONE cisions of the Pulitzer oracles, slippery are their meditations verdicts. They know what they better than you or I do. Perhaps they will bestow, heaven forbid, their garlands on “One Sunday Afternoon, by sedulous and popular Lloyd Nolan. Al« though it may seem that I am impue dent in my intrusions upon the Pulitzer celebrations, I ask that the, red feather be put in the cap of “Both Your Houses,” in which Maxwell Anderson, the author, and the Theater Guild, the impresario, bitterly flatter the lowest form of life, the Ameri« can legislator. A few of my subscribers suggest that “Design for Living,” by Miss Fentanne, Mr. Lunt and Mr. Coward, should be a candidate for the Pulitzer medal since they and their play so candidly are of the impression that ugly people may grow, beautifully, in the garden of existence, to be inter- esting poppies, pansies, violets and daffo- dils. It is my timid impression that the Pulitzer committee ought to wreathe its garlands upon the bony neck of “Both Your Houses,” a less ex« citing drama than the satanic Kauf- | man-Ferber opus, “Dinner at Eight," |or Miss Peggy Fears' sentimental “Melody in the Air,” but still the | deepest of this year’s theatrical shal- [lows. One's vagrant and uncounted vote is hereby cast for “Both Your | Houses” as the best Pulitzer drama of | the season. | | Moscow Theatrical Festival, THE first Moscow Theatrical Festival, with an elaborately arranged pro- gram covering the dates from June 1 through June 15, will be the goal of a tour to Soviet Russia conducted by Oliver M. Sayler, well known author of books on the Russian theater, ac- cording to a recent announcement by the Drama League Travel Bu- reau, under whose auspices the tour will be made, with the co-operation of Intourist, Inc., the official Soviet Travel Bureau. The schedule of the tour calls for sailing from New York on the North | German Lloyd Berlin on May 10, brief stop-overs in Copenhagen and Hel- singfors, arrival in Leningrad on May 217, four days of sightseeing and play- going in the old Russian capital, 10 days of attendance at the Theater Festival in Moscow, and return via Leningrad and the Baltic Sea to New York on the S. S. Dresden on June 25. Members of the group, who wish to do S0, may remain in Moscow for the last five days of the festival, or return by rail to a Western European port for sailing, at a small additional expense. To Btar in ‘Prelude to Love.' ** PRELUDE TO LOVE,” & screen play gowan have selected actor-director, to direct Miss