Evening star., 1937-07-13

Vic 1kOduSlOClc ClSdt ~ SoA0A4sAys ~
nights audience 1t found the old
romantic drama not quite so hissable
as its predecessors of this season
Noticeably it pulled its misses and en-
joyed itself just the same.
The heroes and heroines (or in
whatever order they Gomez are so
much more heroic than the villains
are villainous that it is clear they
can take care of themselves in this
play The audience just gave the
players their heads and saved its
boos for a darker day at the Roadside.
It amounted to serenity with pleas
ant zip in it.
"T>HE Prisoner OF Zenda," despite its
merit, is not so fortuitously
cast as "Our American Cousin" its
predecessor. 1t does, however. have
Richard Kreuzberg. in flaming wig
or multiple henna rinse, playing a
dashing Rudolph Rassendyll, a man
almost too heroic for the proportions
OF the Roadside stage. 1t also has
Virginia True, turned red-head for
a fortnight by some legerdemain we
don't understand. Miss True gives
a graceful talent to the part Of Prin-
cess Flavia. makes the princess just
the kind of girl Rudolph had to love
unless he were complete sap, which
Of course, he is anything but.
Then, to make the play completely
terrific so far as hair is concerned
Betty Gray plops a black wig over
her red tresses and turns in an ex-
cellent performance as Antoinette de
gave for love in the role was French
accent that slipped only a couple OF
times and then not seriously. She
was so good, indeed, that every one
forgave her for not being handy to
play the piano for the entr'acte sing
ing.
Even the villains seemed to know
they had no chance against the vlr-
tue of this trio. plus that Of j. Ed
mund Veitch as Col. Sapt. At any rate
Lawrence Beckerman as the Black
Michael, and Michael Mcknight as
Rupert of Hentzau, did not seem to
get their hearts into their black
deeds as enthusiastically as they
should.
Others in the cast who simply have
to be mentioned are Ralph Fowler
Gerald Flood, Edward Hopper, Jerry
Hess and youngster, Karl Gay. The
latter. appearing in minor part,
wears his uniform and marches with
a flair that should win him Job as
a Roxy usher any time he wants to
take 1t up professionally,
Henry c. Pearson has set the show
with nice Judgment, and Dorothy
Croissant fhe wig and costume wom-
am has done her usual excellent job.
Whatever Miss True and Kreuzberg
feel about their hair, it looked swell
from out front
WE TAKE second place to no man,
NV woman or child in our admira-
ton of Burgess Meredith, but those
snatches of his Hamlet which we
heard last night on the radio did
nothing to enhance that admiration.
1t may be that Hamlet does not play
we'll beneath the stars on an auto
mobile radio. Or, it may be that one
has become so accustomed to hearing
the melancholy Dane speak with an
English accent that any other sounds
alien and strange. Whatever it was,
Meredith seemed less imposing as the
mad prince than as the disinherited
Mic in "Winterset," or the whimsical
Van Dorm in High Tor"
1t is quite possible that hearing the
whole of his impersonation in Co.
lumbias first Shakespearean program
would have radically reversed such an
estimate. All told. we caught less than
one-third of it; that much in broken
lots and including none of the solilo-
Guies.
That fraction. however, gave the
impression that Meredith was guilty
of what athletes call pressing: that he
vns trying to make up with his voice
u6r the absence of the expression and
Ii