Evening star., 1939-11-27

TlDdlOTy tOucneQ with wisdom. 1t
would be pleasure to say that the
81 Civic players involved caught
its every varied emotion. Any
yearning to do SO bows to the ne
cessity that people must believe what
they read in the paper" which
makes urgent the judgment that the
excellence of many parts did not
add up to a perfect whole. Even
when it failed, however, the casts
effort to capture the neurotic spirit
OF the play had an entertaining,
hopeful vitality about it. Too much
vitality, perhaps, to catch an acute
neurosis.
The play, chosen partly because
1t gives opportunity to so large a
cast, served we'll the purpose of
showing Civic possesses the talent
which Director Day Tuttle can use
to excellent advantage A dozen
excellent impersonations of those
decadent dreamers of the dizzy 20s
clamor for recognition in this BIZ
ography of playwright who turned
faithless to his genius after tasting
money and fame. Among them is
newcomer Sara Seegar, as the shall
low, ruthless glamour girl in whose
veins runs thinly) the blood of
burlesque dowager queen. Excellent
is Mimi Norton as the disillusioned
young writer who quenches her
heartache and her talent in double
Scotches when her love fails to save
the dramatist from his tormenting
devils. The playwright himself is
well enough handled, considering
the complexities of his condition,
by Richard Kreuzburg, and Alan
Schneider demands attention as the
artist pal who stuck to his ideals.
So do several others, Minna Adams
and Richard j. Watson among them,
for nicely drawn smaller roles.
Another useful purpose served by
"Merrily We Roll Along" is its illus
tration that Civic productions, as
set by William Girvan, are invari-
ably effective. The nine sets of the
play ranging from simple court.
room corridor to a lush den for a
glamour girl, from college chapel
to the casual studio of casual art
1st, are convincingly conceived and
created. Mr.. Girvan merited gener-
GUS applause and got it.
In writing "Merrily We Roll
Along" the playwrights did radical
bit OF tampering with time, turn
ing it backward throughout the play.
Their drama begins with the death
of Richard Niles dream of becom-
ing worthwhile playwright. an in
evltably cruel death. Thereafter it
traces the dream back to it's begin
ming when Niles was an earnest, de-
vout seeker of artistic truth as
college senior. 1t happens that Niles
dream is hard one to kill and on
its way to death it involves many
places and many people, as a 9-set,
97-member cast already must have
indicated. The mechanics of it's de-
mise were not too complicated, how
ever, for Mr.. Tuttle's direction to
have encompassed most, if not all,
of them.
Because it so admirably echoes
thought by means of which this
column recently was saved from
kind of blackout, we cannot resist
quoting Alfred Hitchcock on the wis
dom Of tipping film directors. Says
Mr.. Hitchcock:
THE time for specialization in
film direction and writing has ar
rived. 1t is just as important that
the creative end of the cinema be
specialized as it is for the technical
assistants each to have their own
specialties."
Mr.. Hitchcock may change his
mind some day and so, of course,
may this department. That will
make another column, or at least
help fill one. And any possible
charge of recanting will be answered
with the defense that Hollywood has
carried tipping too far. That's al
ways the answer, right or wrong.
X X X
Those Thursday openings have
not been so entirely successful at |
the Capitol Theater that the house
is not going back to Friday open
ing this week :. The Friday open