December 11, 1948 The Billboard LEGITIMATE 45 KISS ME, KATE I OUT-OF-TOWN OPENINGS (Opened Thursday, December S) ROUTES SIIUBERT THEATER, PHILADELPHIA Dramatic and Musical JENNY KISSED ME LEND AN EAR A musical with score and lyrics by Cole Port- (Opened Thursday, December 3) er. Book by Belle Spewack. Staged by John ( 0. H.) Boston. (Opened Thursday, December 31 SHUBERT THEATER, C. Wilson. Settings and costumes designed Along Fifth Avenue (Forrest) Philadelphia. WILBUR THEATER, BOSTON by Lemuel Ayers. Dances by Hanya Holm. Annie, Get Your Gun (Shubert Lafayette) De- NEW HAVEN, CONN. Or- An revue sketches, lyrics and Musical director, Pembroke Davenport. troit. A play by Jean Kerr. Directed by John intimate with Bennet. Presented Blackstone (Erlanger) music by Charles Gaynor. Additional sketches chestrations by Russell Buffalo. OBhaughnessy. Setting by Ralph Alswang. by Arnold Saint -Bobber and Lemuel Ayers. Born Yesterday (Cox) Cincinnati. Costumes, by Eleanor Goldsmith. General by and . Directed Brigadoon (Shubert) Chicago. by Hal Gerson. Dances by . CAST: . Patricia Morrison, manager, Charles Harris. Press representa- Carousel (Convention Hall) Tulsa, Okla., 1-I; tives, Samuel J. Friedman and Lewis Har- Costumes and settings by Raoul Pene Du . . Barry Clark, Jack by George Bauer. Diamond, Thom. Hofer, Edwin Clay, Charles (Home) Oklahoma City 5 -fl. mon. Stage manager, Richard Saunders. Bob. Musical direction Command Decision (Studebaker) Presented Orchestrations by Clare Grundman. Light- Wood, Glen Tetley, Don Mayo. Annabelle Hill, Chicago. by Jam. Russo, Michael Ellis Escape Me Never, Elisabeth Bergner and Alexander II. Cohen In association with ing by Moe Hack. General manager, Michael Lorenzo Fuller, Fred David, Eddie Siege and with Mb Cfoldreyer. Press representatives, Samuel Dents Green. Majesty's) Montreal. Clarence M. Shapiro. Finian's Rainbow (Shubert) Boston. Father Moynihan Leo G. Carroll J. Friedman and Max Gendel. Presented by All of musical Michael Saunders Ernest Graves William Katsell and William Eythe in asso- the famed twosomes Harvey (Colonial) Boston. Mrs. Deasy Zamah Cunningham ciation with Franklin Gilbert. comedy will now have to step back Heiress, The (Selwyn) Chicago. High Button Shoes (Great Sister Mary Sara Taft Renee Anderson, way for a new of Northern) Chicago. CAST: Yvonne Adair, Anne to make team Japhet (Walnut St.) Philadelphia. Shirley Bonnie Alden Dorothy Babbs, Carol Charming, Al Checco, titans-William Shakespeare and Cole Miss Stearns Ruth Saville Eythe, Nancy Frank- Kenny Kissed Me (Plymouth) Boston. Robert Dixon, William coupling of the ICUs Me, Kate (Shubert) Philadelphia. Mary Delaney Bette liowe lin, Antoinette Gulkey, George Hall. Beverly Porter. For in the Harry Jan Jordan Heiser, Jenny Lou Law. Tommy Morton. Gene Bard's Taming of the Shrew, as in- Lend an Ear (Wilbur) Boston. Make Way for Lucia (Ford) Baltimore. Jo Unlink-Mae Martin Nelson, Bob Scheerer, Jeanine Smith, Lee terpolated by Belle Spewack in her Owen Parkside Brennan Moore Stacy, William Tabbert. Man and Superman, with Maurice Evans Mr. Parkside William A. Lee own show text with a lively and highly (Cass) Detroit. Miss Kennedy Mathtlde Baring There are going to be lot of hang- literate Porter score highlighting Medea, with Judith Anderson (Blackstone) Mrs. Ives Mary Glides overs in Hollywood. When the big melodic progressions that will linger Chicago. Jenny Mary Anderson the Boston and Mr. Roberts (Erlanger) Chicago. A Girl Camilla Dewitt boys out there read long after Kate is packed off in Oklahoma (Davidson, Milwaukee. Another Girl Dorothy King New York reviews of Lend an Ear, storage, we have here a musical that Oklahoma (Victory) Dayton. 0. Charles Gaynor's tour de force revue, should go on its merry way for more O Mistress Mine (Locust St.) Philadelphia. The Broadway fate of this play is on a Showboat (Curran) San Francisco. they are going to go out monu- performances than any would dare Car Named Desire Chicago. a toss-up at this point, and from its mental bender to escape the fact that to add up at this opening date. With- Street (Harris: bow-in the cards are definitely they ever let this guy get away, and out reservation, here is a hit musical against it. It unfolds as one of those they will heap ashes on their heads guaranteed to aggravate .the ulcers charming, fresh, youthful stories, when they realize how much sure- of a treasurer harassed by all the "Goodbye My Fancy" Moves and while beautifully presented and fire talent they've let go. playgoers who will be ready to pull expertly performed by its leading stacks hairs and even split skulls to get NEW YORK, Dec. 4.-Goodbye My got That's the way Lend an Ear character, it still hasn't enough even after a halting first their hands on ducats. Fancy, one of the town's latest hits, body and story for stern Stein coin - tip here, now at the Morosco Theater, shifts performance, when timing went off, a play-within- petition. Mrs. Spewack cuts to the Fulton about February 15 to a couple of sketches misfired and a-play for a musical which revolves A Barry Fitzgerald sort of priest right. make way for Kermit Bloozngarten's things generally were just not both front and backstage for ever-so- Death who mingles in and out of the lives For it's a sure thing in any man's many amorous, colorful and tuneful production of Arthur Miller's of everyone in his parish and man- language that will be the talk of a Salesman. The Young and Fair, Ear moments. So we find Alfred Drake current at the Fulton, leaves next ages to muddle thru to the right of Gotham for a long time to come. in The Peacock tradition of a Shake- answers, makes a pleasant enough The show's got everything: pleasant spearean actor-director playing Pe- Saturday (11), with a movie to fol- story, especially when played by such hot fox low as a spot booking until Fancy sentiment, sharp satire, trots, truchio, with Patricia Morrison as to one of its a capable performer as Leo Carroll, swinging waltzes, a touch of romance the tempestuous Kate. His amorous arrives. Fair, according but its acceptance by a New York It's got real producers, is looking for another and some torchy stuff. designs, however, are currently for many are available. audience is still another story. The wit, not insult which passes for wit the Bianca of his Shrew cast-a de- house, but not too play has some funny situations and It has broad humor, subtle The Golden Theater, which has been today. lectable dish as Lisa Kirk plays her. films, is expected to some very adroit dialog, but it loses digs, and the sketches are among the The quartet of principals is rounded showing Italian itself in the efforts to build up its in ages. revert to legit December 27 with funniest seen out by nimble-footed Harold Lang, of Oh, Mr. characters, and gets so involved that Miss Kirk's beloved. John Yorke's production the author has to foist a complex Sketch-Songs Meadowbrook. The house has been third act on the audience to straighten There's a novel sketch and song Stage-Struck Thugs leased from the Shuberts by Super- it out-and still you don't believe it. combined in When Someone You Love Added to the bickerings that such film Corporation until 1951. The plot concerns Father Loves You, sung nicely by Gloria proximity breeds are a happy pair of St. Matthews, a crusty, sarcastic Hamilton and Robert Dixon, danced of stage-struck thugs who develop a pastor of the old school, who insists smartly by Antoinette Gulkey and case of mistaken identity in attempt- 5 Flesh Houses for Sydney on personally running his church and Gene Nelson. There's another sketch- ing to get a gambling debt honored his flock. His efforts to transform song in I'm Not in Love, sung by by the Shakespearean lead. Here, SYDNEY, Dec. 4.-For the first his ward into a girl who will be con- Yvonne Adair and danced incredibly again, the acumen shown in the time in many years Sydney will have sidered "hep" by the boys (so he can by Goer Champion (subbing for one show's casting is pronounced in the five theaters devoted to flesh at the get her married and off his hands) performance), Gene Nelson and tally marks registered by vaudevil- same time, if plans mature to use makes up the plot-and he is handi- Tommy Morton. And in Who Hit lians Harry Clark and Jack Diamond. the pie house, the Taller, for the stag- capped by the juvenile, who likes Me? Miss Adair shows that she's the In fact, all cast choices fit expertly to ing of Hellzapoppin at the end of this her the way she was. That's the coming tall, dark and torchy gal, form. month. Harry Wren has just returned story, and only Carroll's acting magic while Nelson's dancing is about the Dramatically and musically, Drake with the rights to Helizapoppin and is keeps it alive. most startling stuff on feet seen yet. and Miss Morrison make for a lead negotiating for the Tatler to stage it. pair as potent as they will ever come. Carroll Magnificent Here are two people Hollywood's Other theaters on flesh are the Royal, going to scream over losing. The cata- Drake makes the accolades he earned with Annie Get Your Gun playing to Carroll does a magnificent job. He log of hits and star talent in Lend an in Oklahoma bloom all over again, capacity; the Tivoli, with Italian makes the priest absolutely believ- Ear could go on for more space than making the most of 's opera; the Empire, with a vaude pro- able in every way, and never once talents in Wive It Wealthily and The play any journal would allow. But stack gram, and the Minerva, with straight does he lose the character. The it all up to Charles Gaynor, who has Life That Late I Led. Miss Morrison, drama. is worth seeing if only for his great been putting this revue together for a soprano pip, carries the ballad acting. years (part of it was done by the frame fetchingly and bends over just However, the star is not so for- South Shore Players, Cohasset, Mass., as delightfully for I Hate Men. STEM LUNCHEON tunate with his running mates; they in 1941 and 1947), and then hand out Miss Kirk does plenty of show- let him down badly. Mary Anderson, the credit to the players and to Bill stealing on her own, being at her (Continued from page 4) the ingenue, played her role as tho Eythe, who first did it in Hollywood saucy best with the spicy Tom, Dick general, Emil Friedlander and Bert she expected to be awarded an when the big boys dropped their op- or Harry and Always True in My Lytell; guild and unions, George Oscar at any moment and showed tions. Fashion. Lang, with his deft combi- Heller; motion pictures, George only too plainly that her Hollywood Here are some of the top perform- nation of ballet and tap, also does Schaefer Sr.; music, Arthur Judson; experience had made her unfit for just as right lyrically for the Bianca night clubs, Lou Walters; radio, Ed- the footlights in her present state. ers and their works; Dorothy Babbs, the cutest and snappiest little dancer song. And for whatever comedy gar Kobak; recording, Mania Sacks; Her exhibition of overacting at every creaks in the Spewack lines and sit- stage, John Shubert and Louis Lotito, opportunity was more than even on the stage; Carol Channing, who girl, anything else, uations, the Clark and Diamond com- and television, Lawrence Phillips. Carroll's great experience could over- plays a dumb or bo does more than make up for it come. in the smartest way; Al Checco, a lumbering comic; Bill Eythe, versa- with the high hilarity of its Brush If any other laurels are to be Up on Your Shakespeare number. The cast is a large one considering handed out for acting they must go tile and gifted; Gloria Hamilton, "Stopping the show cold" is merely the dominance of the principals, but to two minor characters, Zamah Cun- pretty and able with the pipes; Jenny capable in every respect. In fact, the Lou Law, who's funnier than her lukewarm wordage for their wit here. ningham and Brennan Moore, the The Porter pen is most prolific for lavishness of it all strikes a nostalgic latter, incidentally, making his first name; Gene Nelson, a dancer who note of a musical staged in the lush will be sought by every musical pro- Kate and the show is all fashioned professional appearance on any stage. with a lilt. Top tune credits will un- days. Both add zest to the proceedings and ducer in the book; Bob Sheerer, an- questionably other fine dancer. Then go over the accrue to such gems as It's safe to suggest that the New make their characters live. Why Can't You Behave? and So in York banking institutions better en- Ralph Alswang's single setting is cast and write in similar comments about all the rest. Love Am /-to single out two of more large some of those vaults to house excellent, and certainly no fault can than a dozen. all the green lettuce that Kiss Me be found with John O'Shaughnessy's Ear needs now only the tightening Co-producer Lemuel Ayres has Kate is going to grab on the Stem. direction, with the possible exception and general picking up which go on been most generous with settings and Maurie Orodenker, of very bad third act spots, which in every tryout-and not very much costumes. And all with an eye on are more the fault of the author than of that. The songs are all fine, altho beauty, taste and color, and adding the director. not many are distinguished. But it's to the show's charm are the terp FOR RENT On the whole Jenny is strictly plain that Gaynor is our next Cole designs fashioned by Hanya Holm. matinee fare, with the older ladies Porter. Raoul Pene Du Bois' sets DOWNTOWN THEATER loving it every moment. But the are simple but perfectly stunning. 850,000. About it rather boring. Gower Champion's ticket anywhere, and so can the 800 elta?"11g1ITeTeYulp?.eVditr younger folks find dances are tre- and sound. 31.000 per month and mainMarroa. Its appeal will be decidedly limited mendous. There's not much more to quicksilver bunch who make magic His -and so will its Broadway life. say, except that "this is It." From out of his wondrous music and words. 1544 Sid Golly, now on Gaynor can write his own Bill Riley. Broadway New Yort City tB

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