The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-01-30

"Porgy," which in turn stemmed fro
The score was GershWin's finest
work and a promise Of even better
things to come, but his untimely
death left the "Porgy and BeSs
music as the climax of an already
honored career The songs have
gained great popular favor in the
six years that have INTERVIEWED since
the original production.
"Porgy and Bess," however, is not
just production known for its mu-
sic. The libretto was and is an eX-
cellent one and the lyrics by Hey
ward and Ira GershWin remain ex-
actly what the doctor ordered. This
story of the crippled Negro Porgy
and his love for the woman Bess,
who also was the object of the af-
fections of the villainous giant
Crown, remains as poignant as the
first time you met up with it.
1t is finely acted and sung by a
cast that is almost duplicate OF
the original one. Todd Duncan
again has the role of Porgy, Anne
Brown is Bess, Ruby Ely is Serena,
Warren Coleman is Crown, Georg-
cite Harvey is Maria, and j. Rosa
mond is new in the role of that
gamblin', ladies' man, Sportin' Life,
and does a really excellent job. The
singing of the chorus is worth the
price of admission alone.
In case you are a bit hazy on
the details, the better known mu-
steal numbers are Summer Time"
II Got Plenty of Nuttin'," 1T Amt
Necessarily So" and "Bess, You Is
My Woman Now
The person to be thanked for re-
viving this splendid entertainment
is Cheryl Crawford, boss of the
highly successful MapeWood, N. j.,
theat.r, who tried out the revival
experiment there late last fall and
found that she had something
worth bringing to town.
ALL IN FAVOR" by Louis
- Hoffman and Don Hartman,
was a quick failure for the new pro-
duction firm of Elliott Nugent and
Robert Montgomery. The critics
found this comedy about the
troubles of a group Of adolescents
not to their liking and the pro-
ducers bowed TO their verdict with
out a culver.
TNHE versatile Nugent, however,
l. is not going to be idle long. He
has been tapped for the male lead
in the new Philip Barry comedy,
Without Love-" which will have
Katharine Hepburn as its leading
woman. The Theater Guild will be
the producer and all hands hope
to duplicate the success of the
Barry Hepburn Guild THE Phila-
delphia Story, Of three seasons ago.
X ATHARINE CORNELL is work
~ ing her way across country TO
Broadway with new play, Rose
Burke the first script in English
by the highly successful French
dramatist, Henri Bernstein. 1t
opened in San Francisco and is
scheduled to play Portland, Ore,
Hitchcock hired twin dancers,
Jeanne and Lynn Romer, who
achieve unity by wriggling into cos
tunes that have been sewed togeth-
er.
It's significant that in all this
region of feminine emaciation,
there wasn't a suitable fat woman.
Hitchcock, who's the latest man
in Hollywood, had to import Marie
LeDeauX from a carnival in Arizona.
Marie weighs only $50 pounds, but
she's also mere five feet in height.
She weighed IS pounds a THE age
of 2. But Marie admits that she
never will be as famous as her
mother 00-pound Baby Alice. Miss
LeDeaux' fsther was a lanky boss
canvaSman.
She lvies movies, all right, out
isn't envious of the screen queens.
Wouldn't trade places with any Of
EN- if it meant going on a diet.