The Monte Carlo Ballet Ruses is about to bid goodbye to the United States. Next Wednesday evening at the St. James Theatre, S. Hurock will present the troupe in a new American ballet called “Union Pacific.” After the premiere it will be staged on Thursday evening and twice on Friday. On the following day the ballet will sail for Europe to play in Monte Carlo, Spain, Paris and London.
Although “Union Pacific” will be seen on Wednesday for the first time in this city, the piece has al ready been done by the ballet while on tour in Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago where according to reports, it was received with enthusiasm.
WRITTEN BY AMERICAN
Archibald MacLeish who last year was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, built the libretto for the ballet on his satiric poem “Frescoes for Mr. Rockefeller’s City.” Set against the colorfully baudy and blustering period of the west in 1869 when the first transcontinental railroad was being built and was approaching a joining point in Utah, the story of “Union Pacific” concerns the turbulent gangs of Irish and Chinese workmen who labored on the road, and the ladies of the box-cars which followed the advancing lines and provided entertainment in a huge canvas saloon called the Big Tent. The pompsity of the New York and San Francisco capitalists is satirized in a final scene depicting the driving of the golden spike a ceremony which occasions flambuoyant celebration through-out the land.
Nicholas Nabokoff, a young Russian composer who has written the score for two ballets entitled “Ode” and “Comedie,” created the music for “Union Pacific,” drawing upon railroad songs and barroom ballads of the time. Among the songs are; “Lady Gay,” “Butcher’s Boy,” “The Roving Gambler,” “The Runaway Train,” “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad,” and “Pop Goes the Weasel.” The decor for the battet which is in five scenes was designed by Albert Johnson, American artist who designed the settings for “As Thousands Cheer,” and the costumes were designed by Miss Irene Sharaff who earned a reputation for her designs of Eva Le Gallienne’s production of “Alice in Wonderland.” Eugene Dunkel executed the scenery and Edward Powell collaborated with Mr. Nabokoff in the orchestration.
Leonide Massine designed the choreography for the ballet and plays the comic role of bartender. David Lichine enacts the part of the foreman of the Chinese gang and Eugenie Delarova will dance as “Lady Gay,” with Tamara Toumanova in the role of a Mexican dancer. Two companion ballets will be given with “Union Pacific” which was made possible by the sponsorship of a committee of five New York women interested in American arts.
STAGE AND SCREEN NOTES
Samuel Pokrass, a Russian composer, is revising the score of his operetta “Cyrano” for a New York showing in the Fall. The piece was first given in St. Louis last summer.
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