Critical Moments

Something will have to be done about these New York audiences which refuse to accept without complaint the offering set before them by a producer. There was a time when an unrestrained dressed group of First Nighters, even though they were thoroughly disgusted with the spectacle going on before their eyes, used great restraint in expressing their combined disapproval. Lately, however, these same audiences have become so outspoken that it is becoming positively embarrassing. Why this has happened I don’t know. It is true that the last batch of shows which included such “turkeys” as “Late Wisdom,” and “Love Kills” have been a few cuts below “terrible” but the other night at the Henry Miller Theatre an English drama by Lionel Hale titled “These Two” had its premiere and although I cannot defend it with any intense feeling, it did seem as though the audience was not only anxious to stick the knife in but also perfectly willing to give it a few extra turns.

TWO TOO MANY

The tittering in the interior of the Henry Miller was inspired in part by a bit of directing in which A. E. Matthews and Bramwell Fletcher who act as two bachelors go through the entire play offering each other drinks and drinking them. Unfortunately this constant but polite guzzling is not supposed to be funny. I suspect however that the unpleasant laughter that arose from the orchestra seats was also caused by many of the very stagey incidents, the likes of which haven’t been seen outside a melodrama in a decade or two. “These Two” is a play about a London broker who suffers unrequited love for a maid (Helen Chandler). Suddenly and without warning the maid breaks into the home of Fletcher and informs him that she is about to have a child. Our hero just as suddenly then begs the gal to permit him the honor to be known as the father of this unborn youngster. Of course she accepts. The audience was amused. The broker at first is very much in love with his pregnant bride but she regards him as a tolerable convenience and goes her care-free way, running about with other men and, the audience presumed, indulging in extra-marital activities. She finds after a while that her broker is really a nice sort of fellow and she discovers that her heart is big enough to include him. You are then treated to a big moment in which our hero and heroine are seen on the threshold of a bedroom looking at each other in a not at all brotherly or sisterly way.

But this is not the end-our hero awakens from his bovine state of complacent sacrifice and realizes that his lady is not all that she should be, to be as inelegant as possible, “packs her in” and leaves her with the thought of suicide via poison as her own solution.

THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT

The retail adage that the customer is always right is evidently being taken seriously by theatregoers. They have come to a stage where they insist upon reaching their own conclusions about a show and refuse to sit meekly while actors declaim inane banalities and emote themselves into silly situations. Certainly a revolt of this kind was needed. Producers have been complaining that the only thing wrong with the legitimate stage was the talkies, but after seeing nearly thirty plays in the past six weeks I think the thing wrong with the legitimate stage is the producers. Occasionally a good show will fail to strike a responsive cord but the idea that anything in three acts is better than the average movie is fallacious and will prove costly.

BITTER SWEET

To convince yourself that audiences know what they want visit the revival of Noel Coward’s “Bitter Sweet” at the Forty-fourth Street Theatre. This delightful operetta which first ran in New York in 1929 is as fresh and as entertaining as ever. It is well cast, sung and directed.

START CHILDREN’S THEATRE AS NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

The American Children’s Theatre, Inc., a non-profit organization, has been formed and will shortly start activity as the first permanent professional children’s theatre in the United States.

Prof. Albert Einstein and Aldermanic President Bernard S. Deutsch head a long list of prominent persons announced as sponsors of the theatre. Supreme Court Justice Aaron J. Levy signed the incorporation papers of the theatre, which is modeled after existing children’s theatres in Europe Lasar Galpern will direct the group’s stage productions.