The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-09-20
The World of
the Theatre
BY HAROLD EDGAR.

CAROLS Murder at the VanitieS" is
not an important show. The daily
reviewers found it dull, the audience
whose appetites it is intended to
satisfy, will not enjoy it, and before
long everyone will have forgotten its
run at the New Amsterdam Theatre.
Shows like this are produced all
the time. BY hook or crook, a sum
Of money of no less than $4,000 is
collected from various Sources-the
movies, dizzied bankers, prosaic SUI
gar daddies, eccentric racketeers-
and the results of their corporate
business acumen, taste and hopes
make up the greater part of the
theatre of Broadway. In this in
stance, Mr.. Carroll. who has pro-
duced huge successes to the tune Of
staggering deficits guessed wrong
and his losses will be heavier than
usual But just as the characteristics
of health may be deducted from the
symptoms of sick person, so Muir
der the Vanities by its crude SIM
pleness reveals the anatomy of show
business in all its phases.
The. theatre. program runs the
usual series of advertisement credits
this, Of course, as a means Of low
ering costs on the items for which
credit is given. "Laces used in this
production exclusively by Gehring,
Solomon and Birnbaum, Inc. Lin
gerie in Novelty Scene designed by
Werther Friedman. Dogs by Toy De-
partment, Gimbel Bros. Miss Bac-
lanova's trimmed suit and wrap by
Russeks, Fifth Ave. Blue panels used
in second act are manufactured by
Westinghouse" ETC., etc.
This combination of art and trade
is reproduced in subtler forms in the
text and staging of the show. To
begin with, the idea on which ii
is based is the old nickel
extra pair of pants bargain bait OF
combining the thrills of such mys-
terry melodrama as 1.-THE Spider'-jn
which crime Is committed in q
theatre during performance-with
the allurment of Mr.. CAROLS most
beautiful girls in the world. The
suspicion that the more seductive the
girls the less exciting the mystery
might become seems not to have dis
turbed the producers faith in his
idea. So the odd combinations
multiply.
There are references In the dia-
logue to Observation-Disclosures for
the benefit of the gallery-to the
Essex use-advertisement for the
benefit Of those who buy their tickets
at premium-to the taste that
makes Chesterffelds better-adver-
tisement for the whole house which
is further reminded of this fortunate
cigarette by full page On the pro-
gram cover. The entertainment fur
ther includes rather pleasant roll
ler-skate artist, a prima-donna from
the Moscow Art Theatre, a character
actress from the Yiddish Art Theatre
a romantic villain from the Hun
garian National Theatre, a handsome
lead from the higher brow dramatics
of Katherine Cornell, an ingenue
from nowhere, whose experience be-
gins under Mr.. Carroll. The only
performance which is not perfunctory
is that of a comedian from vaude-
vile and musical comedy.
These sundry attractions assembled
at high expense from everywhere
give class" to show Here we see
them displayed together-not as law
ishly as Mr.. Carroll is accustomed
since even he has learned to econ
omize"-like dummies in a show
window. They move dispiritedly be-
cause they do not belong together
because they certainly do not realize
what has brought them there.
What has brought them to this
chaos and collapse Of art and OF
business, whether they like it or not
is that they are Simply commodities
which a decaying system permits
laundering privateerS to sell to a
public no longer interested in buying
These actors-some OF them talented
are working hard and getting little
either in terms of money or human
recompense, because in the last
analysis they do not know the thea
tre-the world to which it belongs
its inner mechanism, its economic
foundations, what part they play in
it, how it can be changed and how
they can help change it.
In fact, they are not part of the
theatre at all, for a theatre, as 9
Soviet theatre director recently de-
fined it, is an "ideologically cementec
collective" and the Broadway theatre
is at best nothing more than g
bazaar, a haphazard assortment Of
wares thrown together to be auc-
toned to idlers on the market place
These actors are all victims of 9
more bloody murder than Mr.. Carroll
with his spectacular imagination car
show at $3.50 seat. Across the
street from the New Amsterdam, 6
more realistic entrepreneur adver-
tizes Slaughter at Minsky's." Take
your choice.