Wistful Charmer

By T.E. Kalem

Clarence

by BOOTH TARKINGTON

Going to Manhattan's Roundabout Theater in the decade of its existence has always had the anticipatory excitement of going on an archaeological dig. You can usually count on a dramatic find, something that no other theater group is likely to be doing. In recent seasons, the Roundabout's venturesome founders, Gene Feist and Michael Fried, have offered playgoers a delectable comedy of sexual theatrics, Molnar's The Play's the Thing; Barrie's salute to the canny primacy of the female, What Every Woman Knows; and a world premiere of James Joyce's Dubliners steeped in Ireland's lyric grief. The level of performance has often been erratic, but the dramatic daring, like the digging, has been unfaltering.

The first revival of Booth Tarkington's Clarence since it opened with Alfred Lunt in the title role in 1919 is a class-conscious comedy and a delight to behold. The hero, Clarence )Stephen Keep), is a mysterious World War I veteran who applies to the Wheeler family for a job. The Wheelers--stuffy father, silly mother, bratty daughter, son thrown out of Princeton--take him on and find him a paragon of piano tuning, plumbing and wistfully disarming charm. Keep is a perfect stand-in for a young Jimmy Stewart. As Clarence, he woos and wins the governess (Marian Clarke) in a scene of wonderfully evasive romanticism couched in a discussion of beetles and beetle scholars (Clarence turns out to be one).

Noel Coward would have cherished the sequence, and quite possibly, the entire enchanting evening. T.E. Kalem

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