On Wifely Constancy The Passing Show Miss Cornell Poetic Speaks Playwrights Of Those She Go on Plays Right Writing Star of Maugham Revival Sees Lesson in Classic Hits Way Is Hard and Rewards Fewer, By Mark Barron But, Like Anouilh, They Work On NEW YORK. [sake, just because it was a great A veteran from in the * By Jay Carmody trouper coast play past. to coast, Miss Katharine Cornell “It is just as Maugham writes The is that so sensitive surprise many humans go on writing in ‘The Constant Wife’ when I for the theater. was still traveling the other eve- am fighting to hold my husband The insensitive ones, no. are ning after her They gamblers, betting that their Broadway premiere from a beautiful blond who is al- literal reports on life or their broad jokes about will catch the it, in W. Somerset Maugham’s artful most stealing him from me.’’ she public fancy and make them rich. They know the odds and the comedy, "The Constant Wife.” said. consequences involved in failure and nature armed them with the This “As the wife in Maugham’s toughness to both. These are time, however, Miss Cor- play, accept the addicts and there is I am faced with nell took only a hop-skip-and- the realization little need to give them a second thought. that Jump from National every marriage needs a great It is different with the other, smaller group. They are crea- Broadway’s Theater to her deal more thought than most tive, artistic and idealistic. They write plays because they want long-established home on Manhattan’s East wives devote to it. Every time. I to say something which might possibly shed moving light upon a River, a taxicab think, there is a domestic dis- dark corner of human experience. $1.10 ride. Then she moved on for a 60-cent taxicab agreement it is up to the wife to Fry Looks at Good and Evil ride to an apartment she and her give the marriage a second chance. Director Like Christopher Fry in the recent “A Sleep of Prisoners.” husband, Guthrie Mc- "I realize that some will disagree Clintic, had borrowed from with that Humans are prisoners of the evil in their natures, Fry was saying, conclusion. but friends for a few and would it not be wise of them to wake and free themselves? days. Maugham expressed it best in ‘The This was a most difficult thing to say with clarity if one wanted— “We are moving from our Man- Constant Wife’ when Constance, also to say it so excitingly that theater-goers would meditate upon hattan apartment to a new house the wife, faced with the truth it and remember. in Sneedens Landing, a rural sub- about her husband’s infidelity, So, for the pains he took to share his feeling about this with urb outside New York City,” she says nothing is to be gained by be- every one. Pry was accused of being obscure, pretentious, and a said. coming hysterical. Maugham has the great many other things that must have made him feel there is "It keeps me busy getting wife face the unpleasant fact and little one can do about a world of sleeping prisoners. Perhaps, around New York—from my stage says, ‘You can’t make cold after all. they simply do not want their sleep disturbed. entrance in Times Square, to the mutton today into tomorrow's Now comes Jean Anouilh, another poetic playwright, in I am abandoning on the lambchops.” Lovers.” He is jhome "Legend of not being quite so profound as Fry. 'far side of Manhattan, to this Miss Cornell had a gentle lit- Anouilh is content to reflect—in a paraphrase of the Orpheus I home that we have borrowed here erary comment to make. love can be the of man’s for a legend—that passionate emptiest dreams. I few days, to our eventual “I really believe that Mr. He has not come in the of a discoverer of new spirit truth, but of ‘home in rural Sneedens Landing. Maugham in writing ‘The Con- a man who would merely like to restate an old and often ... forgot- I expect to arrive in Shangri- stant Wife! really loved Constance, ten one. about for a to make this dra- Casting way restatement La any day. I just hope my furni- the wife, as I think Mr. Bernard matic, he wrote a play called “Legend of Lovers.” iture keeps pace with me.” Shaw personally loved his Can- Does All the World Love Lovers? She Keeps Touring. dida,” she said. For several All the world will not share his love for this EVERYBODY S FLEDERMAUS reasons Miss Cornell Husband Agrees. Orpheus and --The Metropolitan Opera Coin- here are William Horne as Brenda as Alfred; Lewis, Rosalinda; has been one of the dozen or so Miss Euridice. played by Richard Burton and Dorothy McGuire. Never- pany s new English version of the Johann Strauss musical and Cornell, being feminine Donald Dane as Eisenstein. The lyrics for the popular stars who and his chances are better than classic which comes to the stage have been troup- having played both roles, cer- theless, Pry's. Lovers are more ar- Gayety Theater on December 25 "Fledermaus” are the work of Howard Dietz and the musical has two ing their plays outside the Broad- tainly speaks with resting to watch than humans wrestling with deep-seated evil. for weeks brings a top-flight cast. The three pictured been staged by Garson Kanin authority. way area into where is Miss Lovers wrestle with each other and together against a common places a Agreeing Cornell's hus- fate. This sort of contest is easier to follow. legitimate play is seldom seen. band, Producer-Director Guthrie Anouilh has not made it too easy, however. On the surface, A few weeks ago when she was McClintic, who has staged this his Eurydice and Orpheus are commonplace enough lovers. The 1951 trouping “The Constant Wife" to- new production with an elan and in Films which girl played with such mercurially shifting mood by Miss McGuire Busy, Dizzy Happier ward Broadway she stopped off makes it seem an efferves- cent modern is a pretty, minor actress in a touring French repertory company. Everything Happened, Some Good, Some Bad, in the middle of its travels to play, although it was Life has soiled her but it has not destroyed her dream of beauty Including take her leading man. Brian first produced on Broadway 25 and ecstasy in romantic love. That destruction is reserved for Biggest Picture, Biggest Scandal, and Sad Lovers Aherne. and go to Waco, Tex. years ago. her meeting with a wandering accordion a There they dedicated the Robert “The only things we changed,’* Orpheus, player, meeting Sheilah Graham that begins with exaltation and end^ with tragic awareness that By Browning Library which Dr. A. Miss Cornell said, "were the play's HOLLYWOOD. only death can efface life’s degradation. J. Armstrong had built in honor economics.” We've had some confusing years f Where Anouilh calculatedly risks infuriating a large part of of the famous poet. “For instance, you couldn’t have in Hollywood, but 1951 beats them his audience is in refusing to write a play about a love affair “The Constant Wife” was first Constance or her husband quar- all. Just about everything in the between a little actress and a strolling musician. He makes this produced on Broadway 25 reling about prices of dresses, furs, book happened. Most startling years little romance a symbol of the inescapable errors into which iago. Miss Cornell has done re- diamonds and other such things and space-corraling was the Fran- humans are betrayed by their passions. of classics before, based on their worth at the time chot Tone-Barbara Payton-Tom vivals notably her “Romeo and Juliet” and her when Mr. Maugham first wrote the Death an End to All Neal affair. Betrayals | "Candida.” She lias, she said,' a play. We brought up the finances As of to Barbara is This, he says, will happen to them as long as they live, for going press, very practical viewpoint about re- to meet the prices of today. Other- in Palm with No this is life and the escape from it is death. Springs Neal. of classics. You can’t do wise, there is no changing of the one knows where the once- jvivals In “Legend of Lovers,” he does not want to be a poet talking quite a revival strictly for sentiment’s original script.” : to himself, but one no end anxious to arouse, provoke and, if reserved, gentlemanly Tone is. but _. he could well back necessary, infuriate as many listeners as possible. very be again with Barbara by the time read He has written the sort of play that is difficult for every one, you Coming Attractions ’A WALK IN THE sir for the playwright, the players, the director and the patrons. this—or divorced. Stage. AMOKim now T. S. Eliot did the same thing in “The Cocktail Tennessee The second movie of the ARENA — “Twelfth Night," released as Party,” story noun to with , Williams in “Summer and Smoke.” Arthur Miller in "Death of a year was Rita Hayworth’s flight Angela Paton, starting ««» Salerno Beachhead Salesman” (even the movie does not say what Willie Loman sold), from the non-pursuing Prince Aly December 26. and Pry in “The Lady’s Not for Burning.” Khan. All Rita got out of this NEW GAYETTf — “Fleder. Whether it will be the success of three of these, or the failure deal was a pretty little daughter maus," with Brenda Lewis of “Summer and Smoke.” remains to be seen.