Evening star., 1938-09-11
Barron
Continued From First Page J

Cohan's performance of "Ah, Wilder
ness!" in the town hall OF North Brook
field, Mass, playing the Eugene
O'Neill comedy without scenery be-
cause the stage was so small the set
tings would not fit onto it. And last
year it was the tremendous crowds that
lammed the theaters at every stop
Helen Hayes made in her coast-to-
coast tour in Victoria Regina
THE road, the managers insist, will
no longer accept the Mutt and
Jeff casts that used to clutter stages
= quarter century ago. The movies
and radio have taught the road audi
ences much about what they should
be given in acting, and the tours of
Miss Hayes. Cohan. Miss Cornell, Ger
trude Lawrence and the New York
Theater Guild casts have convinced
them that they can get such stars if
only they demand them.
The road prospects for this season
will have gay beginning. Cohan goes
to Philadelphia to start his tour in
the musical satire on the New Deal.
I'D Rather Be Right" and Alfred
Lunt and Lynn Fontanne open their
tour in "Amphitryon SO" in Boston.
From then onward the Lunts will be
hard on the heels of Cohan in the two
tours that should stir up few station
bands and a few Irish fellowship
luncheonS
Shadow and Substance" picked by
the New York critics circle as the best
foreign play imported to Broadway
last season, will begin a coast-to-coast
tour October on which it will play
IN more than so cities. The original
cast which played it on Broadway for
270 performances will go on the tour,
including Sir Cedric Hardwicke and
blond Julie Hayden in their original
leading roles.
Delegates to the convention Tuesday
Will find the broadway producers in a
much more optimistic frame of mind
than they have been in years. Pro-
ducers who have been inactive for
several seasons such as Laurence
SchWab, William Harris, jr., and Her.
man Chumlin are coming back into
action.
Also such managers as Sam H.
Grisman. who made a fortune out
OF Tobacco Road" and Alex Yokel
who established himself as an affluent
producer with Three Men on a
Horse have scheduled active seasons
on both Broadway and the road. Girls
man has become not only one of the
principal theater owners on Broadway
but also plans to rejuvenate a string
OF playhouses across the country.
The convention also will find that the
Broadway managers are evincing a
greater desire to cooperate with one
another than they ever have been in
the past.
For instance, the theater Guild is
lendlng the support OF its subscription
groups in 10 of the major cities to
help the youthful Mercury Theater
group tour several of its hit plays.
Among the chief points to be taken
up by the convention in its plan to re-
VIVe the road are these:
l. How many productions should be
sent to a single community in the COM
Ing season? In short, how many shows
can given city support?
2. How much to charge?
5. The opening up of picture houses
10 play stage plays at given intervals?
'ihere are few successful examples
OF this already in operation. In Toledo.
ONO, the Paramount playhouse some
tlmes cancels a picture to present q
stage play and reports good business
on such nights. In Maplewood, N. j.
movie house was turned over to stock
plays for the summer and so success
1ul has 1t been that they are going to
play stock there all winter, too.)
4. The support from theater erouus
and group tickets for from four to six
SHOWS similar to the subscription plan
the Theater Guild has operated for
several years in about dozen of the
major road stands.
$. A movement to enlist younester,
who have never seen stage show or a
stralght play into an army of new
theatergoers. A typical example OF
this situation is that a survey of New
York City recently revealed that in
Queens County, thickly Populated
borough. not more than one in ten
Youngsters between the ages of Is and
21 had ever stepped into a legitimate
theater.