Judge — September 1937 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE THEATER GOES ON TOUR Tae is plenty of good news for theater lovers the length and breadth of the land this season. For the hit managers have rediscovered the road. After some tentative excursions the past few seasons, and the triumphant pio- neering of such first raters as Katharine Cornell and Alla Nazimova, the man- agers are convinced that there are vast audiences ready to patronize good plays with good casts outside New York. And these audiences will be rewarded this season with the best stage fare that has sallied out into the country since legiti- mate theaters were hit with the cinema blight, and theaters were deserted for movie palaces, or were refitted into screen projectors. Many cities will be able to satisfy their hunger for flesh and blood theater this season, and will see original New York casts and stars, in many cases; and road companies of hit shows still run- ning in New York, in others. It's the most encouraging sign of the vitality of the theater today. And the reason is not hard to find. It is compounded of the fact that last season was the most suc- cessful in years, and hits were so widely hailed the demand for them outside be- came a clamor; and the fact that astute managers saw the pioneering of Cornell and Nazimova so well received, they were encouraged to go out and get some of the money for themselves. Perhaps the most extensive tour of the season, and certainly one of the most alluring for out of town theater goers, will be the visit of Helen Hayes in “Queen Victoria.” Miss Hayes’ tour con- templates playing for forty weeks in the course of which she will visit 39 Amer. ican’ cities, from Boston to Los Angeles, from Minneapolis to New Orleans. It is a personal triumph of character delinea- tion for the beloved star and her tour should be the outstanding event outside New York this season. Gilbert Miller, who produced “Vic- toria Regina,” will have a second hit on the road. “Tovarich,” the delightful comedy adapted by Robert Sherwood, will go out probably with two com. panies. The company with Marta Abba and John Halliday, featured in the New York production, gave the most dis- tinguished comedy performance of a highly successful season last year. Competing closely for the most am. bitious tour, will be Maurice Evans in his “Richard Second.” His is the most outstanding Shakespearean success of modern times. His run of Richard in New York was longer than any recorded before, longer even than the legendary Edwin Booth’s. He plans to reopen in New York, and then to go on an ex- tensive tour. Besides showing Richard, he plans to try out nine other plays, 1937 © September mostly Shakespearean, and all classical. The most controversial play of the t season, still running strong, is Clare c's “The Women.” Max Gordon expects to keep the original company in New York well into next spring. He lans to start a road company in Chicago in late September, which will tour the country as soon as its Chicago run is over, This is the play of all women characters that shows them as no man could have shown them, in all their vituperative, voluptuary, vagaries. One curses or sings paeons of praise for this daring mirror of a certain type of womankind today, and no one can see it without being moved violently by it. George Abbott is doing his bit to convulse the country with mirth, as he has been convulsing New York this past season. His newest road enterprise is the road program for “Room Service,” that delirious farce about show business that is pacing the laugh makers on Broad. way. The first road company opened in Detroit before a hop to the coast. The second just opened in Philadelphia and will tour the east. Meanwhile, Mr. Abbott is giving heed to his second comedy hit, “Brother Rat,” and is readying a third company for the South. land of this refreshing farce of life at a military school. The Shuberts will send their two musical hits on the road. “The Show is On” has only been seen outside New York in Boston, Philadelphia and Pitts- burgh. It will play a large list of cities now. “The Ziegfeld Follies of 1937” has been seen in all the larger cities in the east, as far as Chicago, but its tour will be a wide one, as it will mop up the rest of the country. The tours for both these Shubert musicals are projected until spring. Only casting difficulties are in the way of a start for each. Back from a tour that took them from coast to coast, Lynn Fontaine and Alfred Lunt, who played “Idiot's Delight” across the country while they rehearsed “Amphitryon 38" will reverse the usual order and come to New York with their latest presentation under the Theater Guild er, They started a vogue of Coast previews, by opening their Am- phitryon in San Francisco and showing to the movie colony in Los Angeles, be- fore bringing it into New York for the Broadway opening. However, the Fist play of the Guild season in New York will be Ben Hecht’s “To Quito and Back,” with Sylvia Sidney and Leslie Banks as the leading players. This is the Theater Guild's twentieth subscription season and it is extending itself to make the anniversary a notable one. The success of John Gielgud in “Ham. let,” Maurice Evans in “Richard Second” and Orson Welles in “Dr. Faustus” has turned managers’ attention back to Shakespeare and his contemporaries, with the result that New York will see a most determined drive on the classics. Sam Harris and George M. Cohan will be together again, with Mr. Harris presenting Mr. Cohan in George Kauf- man’s new political satire, most recently titled, “I'd Rather Be Right.” Maxwell Anderson's new play, “The Star-Wagon” will be Guthne Mc- Clintic’s first offering, with Burgess Meredith. George Abbott's first new offering will be “Home Sweet Harlem”, a play about Negro life, by Bernie Angus. Gilbert Miller will present a new Eng- lish comedy, “French Without Tears” by Terence Rattigan, a big London hit. A more than usually ambitious pro- gram is planned by the Shuberts for their New York season. They will start with two musicals. Ed Wynn will be seen in a new musical, “Hooray for What!" opening in Philadelphia October 4. Conceived by E. Y. Harburg, and written in collaboration with Howard Lindsey and Russell Crouse with music by Harold Arlen, this is destined for the Winter Garden. The new musical comedy by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, “Between the Devil” will open in Boston also on October 4 and it is hoped will come to New York within a week. It stars Jack Buchanan, Evelyn Laye and Adele Dixon, the latter making her first American appearance. The new season opens with the Amer- ican musical romance, “Virginia” by Laurence Stallings and Owen Davis, with songs by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Albert Stillman. This will be the new Center theater spectacle. John D. Rocke- feller's contribution to things theatrical at his Radio City house. —M. F. B. 21 comicbooks.com