New Plays in Manhatten

New Plays in Manhattan

Her Man of Wax (by Julian Thompson, adapted from the German of Walter Hasenclever; Lee Shubert, producer). Behind Her Man of Wax is an idea as excellent as any that ever suffered mutilation at the hands of an adapter. Napoleon reappears in 1933. is hailed as a savior by a chaotic world until it is discovered that a 19th Century man cannot cope with 20th Century problems.

In this case the Corsican comes to life in a wax works under the torrid gaze of a film actress (Lenore Ulric). He makes a date with her for the evening, borrows Woodrow Wilson's top hat, Mussolini's sponge-bag trousers and with some advice given by Landru, the wife-murderer, sets off to the assignation. Some French generals hear of the resurrection, insist that the Little Corporal make all Europe French. After a visit to a disarmament conference, a few experiences with radios and telephones, Napoleon goes back to the wax works in disgust. All this is handled with the worst direction, the most inexpert acting (including that of Miss Ulric) and the shabbiest mise en scene now observable on Broadway.

Champagne, Sec (adapted from Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus by Alan Child; lyrics by Robert A. Simon; Dwight

Deere Wiman, producer). If Johann Strauss was looking down last week from his waltz-heaven he was probably scandalized at the way little Helen Ford (Dearest Enemy) laced herself into a high old-fashioned corset, powdered herself suggestively and came forth to pipe his pet coloratura aria with comically fluttering eyelids and exaggerated soubrette wiggles. But these things supplied the few bright intervals in this latest of many versions of Die Fledermaus. The plot is the same old one : a rich, stuffy Viennese (Tenor George Meader), sentenced to a week in jail, first takes an evening off, goes to a party where he becomes foolishly involved with his chambermaid (Helen Ford) and his wife (Peggy Wood) whom he ogles without recognizing. The adapters in their effort to oil away the creaks have injected many a laborious 1933 wisecrack. George Meader is going to prison because he neglected to pay his income tax. Someone "passes out." The jail is a "happy hoose-gow," a "jovial jug," a "peppy prison." Strauss's music deserves a real prima donna for the role through which Peggy Wood flounders. Tenor George Meader, sprightlier than ever, seems to have forgotten that he was once good enough to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House. The Pursuit of Happiness (by Alan Child & Isabelle Loudon; Laurence Rivers, producer). The real names of Alan Child and Isabelle Loudon are Lawrence Lang-ner, of the Theatre Guild, and his wife Armina. The real name of Laurence Rivers is Rowland Stebbins, producer of The Green Pastures. The real purpose of The Pursuit of Happiness is to capitalize the old Colonial custom called bundling. As practiced by pretty Prudence Kirkland (Peggy Conklin) at Westville, Conn, in the winter of 1778. bundling turns out to be a most unromantic procedure. Like fishing or travel, the idea is more exciting than the act. Or so finds Max Christmann (Tonio Selwart, an ingratiating actor of the Francis Lederer type), a Hessian deserter to the cause of Liberty & Equality. Mistress Prudence, having invited him to bed because firewood is dear, climbs in with her clothes on, sits there with the blanket wrapped about her in the manner of a lap robe and, as a final guarantee of innocence, pulls down a centreboard between them. All this provides Mr. & Mrs. Langner with plenty of material for salty preliminary lines, occupies two acts of their comedy. A fire-eating Virginia cavalryman, a hell-scorched preacher and a bumbling sheriff add to the fun, and Meg (crack-voiced Dennie Moore), a licentious slavey who nevertheless "keeps it patriotic." supplies the really bawdy element of the piece. A typical line of hers, addressed to a horseman to whom she has taken a fancy, ends the play: "Come into the kitchen, captain. I've got something hot for you."

Undesirable Lady (written & produced by Leon Gordon). Playwright Gordon ten years ago wrote something called White Cargo. The action was laid on a South Sea island and a character named Ton-deleyo raised merry Ned among the resident white men with her "mammy-pala-ver." Mr. Gordon's present drama takes place for the most part in the frozen North, but there is still plenty of "mammy-palaver." It concerns a murderess who flees with her elderly and devoted lawyer to the north woods when conviction seems certain. The old man goes snow blind. A strapping woodsman entertains the girl and the whole thing ends in death & destruction. The girl is Nancy Carroll, round-faced, red-headed little film actress. Miss Carroll has had far more credible roles written for her back in Hollywood.

The School for Husbands (by Jean Bkaptiste Poquelin [Moliere]; Theatre Guild, producer). Of the Moliere play, the Theatre Guild has made a musicomedy for highbrows. The plot of the two middleaged brothers who woo their young wards with indulgence and tyranny is the same in which France's King Louis XIV played a small part in 1664. The dialog has been jingled by Poetaster Arthur Guiterman and Guild Director Lawrence Langner. Guiterman has written neatly lyrical doggerels to be sung to songs based on old French folk-tunes and bergerettes. Able Dancers Doris Humphrey, Charles Weidman and assistants give a parody turn and little inspiration to some 17th Cen-tury dances. Pictorially it is nearly perfect. But even dour-faced Osgood Perkins as the tyrannical Brother Sganarelle and childish-voiced June Walker as his ward who is advised to "serve his meals all dank and sultry, and in between commit adultery" cannot make much of Moliere's empty comedy of words and cardboard characterizations. Plot: June Walker, in love with a young suitor (Michael Bartlett) whom Osgood Perkins' surveillance has kept from meeting her, pretends to love Perkins. She sends him to berate the suitor for his attentions, thus establishing communication with the suitor. The communication becomes more complete until the two young people are bedded, then married. To point the moral the indulgent brother wins his ward.

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