Evening star., 1941-08-16

be like that. She doesn't mind. 1t
reminds her of the time when she
asked Sinclair Lewis why he wanted
to be an actor.
why do you want to be an
actress?" countered Lewis.
1t is a revue that brings Miss Bar
rett to the South Shore Theater
here. The revue is only in the first
phases of rehearsal now. 1t is sched-
uled to open August Is. Miss Bar
rett thinks it has some smart, clever
dialogue and music. Does she have
any samples? Does she? She has
them right in her purse, a huge
cavernous looking thing in which it
would be easily possible to carry the
scripts of full scale musical instead
of the little intimate thing in which
she will be star.
The common of CohaSset being no
place for Miss Barrett to do a pre-
view of her revue, the party moves
over to nearby tearoom, or a place
that would have made a handsome
tearoom.
To the delight of a couple of other
customers, of whom Miss Barrett is
oblivious, she demonstrates a couple
of single dance steps, satirical ex-
cerpts from the old Hazard Short
days of chorus direction.
Imagine me dancing" she says.
Imagine me doing anything of this
sort. Especially in company
there are 20 members-in which I'm
look like DR.. Cyclops and the mid
gets. Why, if they build the sets
to fit the rest of the company, I
won't even be able to get on the
stage"
Miss Barrett exaggerates.
One thing about the revue botherS
Miss Barrett, whose irritation usual
ly is limited just to the generality of
the human race in some of its more
Stodgy forms. 1t is a sketch which
is a caricature of Gertrude Law
renee in Lady in the Dark" Miss
Barrett, who never has hesitated to
mimic any one in the most vinegar
ish terms, is somewhat hesitant
about doing the item called Lady
in the Blur"
Il don't know why" she says, but
you don't hear of people caricaturing
Gertrude"
That from the lady whose imita-
ton of Mrs. Roosevelt is a thing
of such excellence of taste and man
ner that Mrs. Roosevelt is one of its
keeneSt admirers.
From the ethical question of bur-
lesquing Miss Lawrence, Miss Bar
rett turns to the lyrics of a song
she will sing in the revue. 1t could
be called bawdy, if you could not
think of a synonym. We can't, but
it is bawdy in a deceptively nice
way.
Miss Barrett has hopes for the
revue, if not for her future in it.
If 1t does not work out, she at least
will have lot of new material. This
time it will be more of her collabora-
ton than her own writing. Usually
it is not.
Although she has written most of
her own material, including those
movie shorts of which she only
made three out of a possible IL, she
does not fancy herself much as
writer. The possible exception is
that of radio writing She admits
with emphasis that she is one of
radios worst friends and severest
critics. primarily on the ground that
it is much too solemn. She thinks
it would be vastly improved as to
comedy value if it stopped being
so blessedly precious and went in
more for satire.
If she has anything to say about
it, 1t will. She may not have any
thing to say about it although a
recent satirical program she did re-
ceived some flattering comment. 1t
made her very happy. She doesn't
know how radio felt about it.
She's not worrying, though. This
is her vacation, her fortnight in the
country. But it still seems funny to
meet her here.