Evening star., 1939-04-30
Great Ladies
the Stage
Experiment
Stars Vary Types
Of Roles and
Find Success
BY Mark Barron,
Associated Press Stan Writer.
NEW YORK

NEW YORK.
The great ladies'" of the Broad.
way stage are flourishing a variety
Of talents today which testify that
they have emphatically increased
their facets of acting since those
mellow days of Sarah Bernhardt
shortly before the turn of the CEN
tury. And they have undergone
even more radical changes since 10
years ago.
Versatility, developed to an eX-
citing degree, is the new rule of the
current feminine stars as they add
this progressive step to the one they
began making few years before
the World War when they went in
for restrained acting rather than
the ranting performances that were
once so popular.
The theater today sees Tallulah
Bankhead changing from the So
phisticated comedy roles, in which
she is SO adept, to play perfectly
the hauntingly wicked and un-
scrupulous heroine of Lillian He'll
mans drama The Little Foxes"
Here is none of the effervescent wit
and laughter on which this daugh-
ter of Alabama bounded to fame,
but definitely cruel and f1inty
character determined to crush any
one to obtain her ends.
In contrast is Katharine Cornell.
turning from the roles of deep trae-
edy, which won her a Nation wide
following, to triumph as the humor-
Gus, sympathetic wife of an amorous
and wandering playwright in the S.
N. Behrman comedy, mo Time for
Comedy"
She plays this, her first comedy
role, with quiet, charming gayety
that is much more amusing than it
would be If played in the manner Of
condolences of Is years ago, when
the chief effort was to throw every
laugh line across the footlights as
If hurting custard pie at the
audience.
ALA Nazimova is a current star
who has constantly varied her types
of roles since those days beginning
in 1906 when she won her first
triumphs here in Ibsen plays, when
she would be exciting as the abso-
lutte child in The Wild Duck" and
then suddenly shift to do an ad.
mirably received performance as
the bored, bored Hedda in "Hedda
Gabler.'
| From these she went into silent
movies, where she played equally
well such divergent roles as van-
pires. condolences and sympathetic
mothers.
Last week she returned. and was
not too happily welcomed. in the
tragic title role of The Mother" the
last drama written by the late Karel
Capek, and one which seems in
spired by the collapse of his native
Czecho-Slovakia.
Nazimova's S performance is moving.
heart filling and inspiring for she is,
as she has been for 35 years. great
actress of many different types OF
roles.
AS matter of fact. you will recall,
it was Minnie Maddern Fiske who
paved the way for the present trend
when, as early as 1897, she injected
| subtle, restrained note into her
performance. This was when she
| brought a Broadway audience to its
feet cheering her brilliant playing
| in Tess of D"Urbervilles, role
which many thought it would be inn
possible for her to play, because the
quiet. deeply emotional part was so
directly opposite to the feathery
voiced comedy characters with
which she won her early fame. But.
it was rare indeed in those days when
an established star like Mrs. Fiske
would venture into a strange field
when once she had won fame for a
particular type of role.
Today. Broadway sees Judith An
derson leaving the brooding, pas
sionate roles in which she so dis
tinguished herself in Behold the
Bridegroom. strange Interlude"
and Morning Becomes Electra to
win critical praise for completely
different type of part. This, as the
gentle woman of simplicity-Mary.
the Mother of Jesus-in Family
Portrait
So the great ladies' of the stage
today are willing to experiment for
variety's sake and they shift with
the facility and success of Helen
Hayes. who can play with equal au-
thority both the Youthful. pretty Lu