Evening star., 1929-06-09
Stage Notes

lT YNN FONTANNE, opening the
- Theater Guilds London production
OF Caprice" with her husband Alfred
Lunt, received such an electrifying
personal success as has not been known
in the London Theater for years" The
play itself was generally considered an
unworthy vehicle for "the finest comedy
acting by an EngliSh-Speaking actress
| seen here in long time" There Is
marked quality of irony in Miss Fon-
| tanne's reception. Not so many years
| back she was visiting the London man
! ayers Offices on employment bent with
marked unsuccesS In those days she
won rebuff; now she wins eXtravagant
| applause,
! New York dramatic editors have been
| busy recapitulating the theater season
| up to the first of June, arriving at the
general conclusion that, while this year
has not been as fat as last, 1t has been
| far from defunct The New York Times
lists 224 productions as against 278 last
year and 264 the year before. There
were % musical comedies, operettas.
13 reveueS, l6 revivalS and foreign
viSitations. The rest were straight pro-
ductions OF one sort or another Talking
pictures are credited with having
Shelved a good number of mediocre
plays, without having materially af-
fected the better productions.
RehearSalS of See Naples and Die
by Elmer Rice author of Street Scene"
this seasons Pulitzer prize drama, will
start early in August.
Cradle OF the Deep" by Joan Lowell
Is to be made into play. Washington
will probably see 1t early in the Fall,
according to Miss Lowells expectations
expressed on recent visit.
Earle Boothe, whose current produc-
ton on Broadway is "JoneSy," is plan
ming to so to Paris in July to set up an
American theater there, he says. He
intends to recruit his acting talent
from the American population in the
French capital.
Four foreign capitals seem likely to
sponsor simultaneous productions of
"Machinal" by Sophie Treadwell. which
Arthur Hopkins did early this season in
New York. Moscow and Paris showings
have been previously arranged and now
Swedish and German rights to the
drama have been bought.
The Italian company Of the Teatro
d Arte, which has had a successful!
season in New York this year under the
direction Of Commentators Giuseppe
Sterni, presented its seventh and last
fortnigA Atly offering Monday evening in
honor Of the director The play was
Luigi Pirandello's Roman domestic
drama. 'Tutto per Bene." freely trans
lated as "Alls Well That Ends Well"
or "All for the Best" The work had
never been given in New York before
though Broadway was familiar with the
italian playwright's Six Characters IN
Search OF an Author" and Right You
Are if You Think You Are"
Gertrude Lawrence goes into rehearsal
in by Candlelight." in London, in early
August. Gilbert Miller will bring the
piece to New York in the Autumn. The
Teatro d. Arte group. in New York gave
the work an Italian presentation recent
ly in Miss Lawrence's honor.
Recent London openings have in
cluded double bill of ST. John Ervine's
Jane Clegg" and the "Medea" of
Euripides, with Sybil Thorndyke, at
Wyndham's Theater; a play called
Why Drag in Marriage?" at the
Strand, and another called "Sybarities"
at the Arts
The Theater Guilds presentation of
"Porgy" has moved in London to a
suburban theater. 1t ran seven weeks
in Picadilly.
Ben Hecht and Charles Macarthur,
co-authors of The Front Page" are
reported to be peddling the book and
lyrics for revue coyly billed as Hearts
and Flowers" II is to present a
kaleidoscope picture of life in New
York
The Theater Guild has bought a new
play from the pen Of H. r. Lenormand.
French dramatist. and may bring it out
in the Fall. The play is called The |
Coward" The guild did Lenormand's |
The Failures" several years ago. His /
work "Une Vie Secrete." at the Studio |
des Champs Elysees, is one of the sea-
sons successes in Paris at present
A play which waited 283 years for
production has been given this year in /
Amsterdam. Written by the Dutch
author JooSt van den Vondel, it has I
been for generations a literary classic, |
known in schools and colleges. but |
never seen in the theater. Created as
tribute TO Mary Queen of Scots, be- /
headed before the authors birth. in |
fact, the epic was precluded from stag
ing because OF religious prejudice. since |
it. championed Catholicism Van del /
Vondel was even fined 180 guilders for !
writing it.