The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1939-10-25
charade.

UAAAb kAC COAAo1uCLCu puItEdyIlS
himself in the Hart Kaufman
charade.
WOOLLEY rs
WOOLLCOTT
Monty Woolley, the ex-Yale
pedagogue with a distinguished
of the ubiquitous Alec. And when
of the ubiquitous Alec. And when
the show opens, the story finds
him in the living room of an Ohio
home, ranting from an invalid
chair in impeccable invective.
He has come to this town to de-
liver one of his inimitable lee
lures and he has consented to
dine at the house of the ladies'
club president. And on the way
up the stoop, he has cracked up
and sprained hip. So he is con-
fined to this house for a couple
of weeks-and hellzapoppin.
With Woollcottian gusto, he is
insulting his hosts all over the
place, making transatlantic calls
by the dozen, scheming against
his secretary's love-affair, receiv-
ing visitors from London, Holly
wood and Paris, Christmas gifts
from everywhere including q
mummy from Cairo, delivering his
Yuletide broadcast from the par
Tor, driving his nurse to nervous
breakdown, a country doctor to
an early grave and himself into a
demoniacal lather
Finally, he is dispossesed by
the sheriff. Everyone breathes a
sigh of relief. The curtain is COM
ing down. There Is the sound of
a thud offstage. And in the next
second, the Woollcottian Falstaff
(Sheridan Whiteside they call him
in the play is trundled back to
his invalid chair, his hip dislocat-
ed this, time in earnest!
The Messrs. Hart and kaufman
are fine fiddlers!
HELEN HAYES
GETS BAD VEHICLE
The next time first nighters
went back to their seats for a
gala premier, it was to condole
with Helen Hayes over the dreary
stuff she had chosen to play this
season. 1t is a comic drama by
her husband, Charles Macarthur,
and Ben Hecht who labeled it
Ladies and Gentlemen" - of the
jury.
1t isn't much of a play, having
10 do with the lives and loves of
a mixed panel during a murder
trial and the defendant is left out
almost entirely from the roman
tic chatter that passes beween
the regal Helen and Philip Meri-
vale.
Helen has been on the throne
so long as Victoria Regina that
first = nighters were pleased to see
her step back once more among
the commoners, but with all due
respect to her husband and the
mischievous Hecht, they would
like to see her In better play
the next time.
First nighters are peculiar that
way. Most playgoers aren't, be-
cause they are flocking to the
show in capacity numbers. They'd
go to see Helen in anything.
BROADWAY
WAR ANTIOTE
There is war in the world and
much trouble, but when the
Broadway season gets under way,
1t dispenses more cheerfulness
than travail. The Rialto musical
show is an antidote for most Of
the worlds poisons and new one
arrived the other night that will
serve as q fine substitute for
laughing gas.
1t is TOO Many Girls" an ex-
travaganza produced by George
Abbot and created by Rodgers
and Hart. Of course, "Too Many
Girls" is a misnomer. There new
er are too many girls in musi-
cal show and there are Just
enough in this one. And the at
of the Abbott show
should send the hordes of collie
gians who arrive here for grid
iron weekends on their ears with
TOO Many Girls" Is football
extra and melodies all the col
lege yells you've heard in your
nearby stadiums. And how the
rhumba ever slipped into the story
Is a mystery, but it's there and
1t is leaving the Manhattan Latins
in seventh heaven. For these Gu
ban snake-hips, Abbott discov-
cred a senorita Of flashing eyes
and flexible torso named Diosa