The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-02-28
In New York
BY PAUL HARRISON

New York-Miss Katherine Corr nell has rung down the curtain on her production of Romeo and Ju- liet" to the tune of paeans and braves from the critics and prac- tically everybody else-with only George Jean Nathan dissenting.
 One of the things I like about MT. Nathan, besides his taste in blondes, clothes and restaurants is that he is so practicable. After reading what all the other critics have to say about something. one can be pretty sure to know where MT. Nathan stands. On the other side of the fence.
 I was hoping MT. Nathan would pan William Shakespeare, but he contented himself with being dis satisfied. with Katharine Cornell. As matter of fact, l believe he likes Shakespeare. and in that opinion, consistently enough, he differs widely with the earliest critics of the drama.
 Thomas Rymer, the first British reviewer, said Shake espeare's verse '.corrupts our tastes and fills our heads with vanity, confusion, clat. ter and nonsense" Voltaire de- clared the bard had ruined the English theater, and that his plays were ''monstrous farces called trag- edies." pr. Johnson said Julius Caesar" was cold tragedy, lacking power to, move the public. Dryden opined that the sonnets were "un- ineligible and out of date"--in the seventeenth century. Lord Shaftersbury called Shakespeare "a wit out of fashion, with a rude and savage mind"
 At Swords Points - MT Nathan would have had fun if he'd lived 200 years ago. when Paris had a woman critic named Mile. Maupin. Right in the middle of one play she borrowed @ sword from a man sitting next to her, scrambled over the foot lights, stabbed two actors who were particularly terrible, and chased the others off the stage while the audience cheered.
 There's some point-as the acc tors discovered = in criticism as vigorous as that. These days we have such sorry spectacles as the retirement of Elmer Rice from the producing business just be- cause the reviewers penned sour notices about his shows.
 Putting on a Play
 A man who owns Q moving pic ture theater in an Ohio town has written in to ack how producer goes about piGducing a play on Broadway. He doesn't say whether he has managerial aspirations, but if he has. hope the following may help to deter him.
 First one has to find a play. There are plenty of agents and eager authors with manuscripts, but the search for a likely one may go on for months. The next, and hard est, task, is to find a packer or packers. One successful revue appeared on. Broadway last season only by the grace of 27 investors, including Mary Pickford. There are not many genuine angels" left these days-men who'll finance show just for the thrill of being | lege of loafing backstage.
 Given the play and the money, a producer next must enlist his performers. If he's choosey, he can call up the casting agencies and state his requirements. If ne isn't so particular, and wants to keep down the payroll, he can whisper to the first person he meets on Broadway that he's thinking of putting on Q play. That will bring about 800 jobless actors into his office within the next "A hours.
 Paying the Pipers
 After selecting the cast. . mana ger must post a bond with Actors Equity covering two weeks salary for every performer. The rules pro- vide that any player can be dis missed without pay during the first week of trehearsals. After that he gets at least two weeks pay. A di- rector and a scenic designer have to be hired, and they're pretty ex- pensive. Then . theater must be leased.
 Stage hands are engaged, and the producer has nothing to cay about. the number required. Even If the same set Is used throughout the show, with nothing for the scene e-shifters to do, a full crew
 must be hired to play pinochle in the wings. A press agent then is
 called in to send out notices to the drama editors.
 Experienced producers also set aside a modest sum for emer.- gency post morten expenses.
 When the show closes, the scenery
 must be loaded by union stage
 hands and earted to a warehouse
 at a cost of $30 per truckload.
 After that there are fees to be paid to Mir Patsy Cain, sextcn Of