Evening star., 1943-04-11
By Laurence Perry.
ArY7yrY xy0DD

NEW YORK.
REIMBURSEMENT by three lumi-
naries of the drama of leading roles
in plays surging along the flood
tide of Broadway popularity is an
incident of the current theatrical
season so very unusual as to arrest
attention and excite wonder. Miss
Katharine Hepburn, giving no ex-
cuse that have heard other than
a desire to repair to Hollywood to
do a movie, walked out Of the
comedy Without Love-" thereby
causing it to be withdrawn because
of its essential quality as a per-
sonal vehicle.
While less havoc will be caused
by the forthcoming withdrawal of
Fredric March and his wife, Flor
ence Eldridge, from roles of Mr..
and Mrs. Antrobus in Thornton
Wilder's roaring success, ''The Skin
of Your Teeth" their decision joins
with that of Miss Hepburn as an
extraordinary manifestation of
dramatic temperament. But the
Marches are wealthy, even more
richly endowed with tangible re-
wards of their art than the star of
the late lamented Elliot Nugent
comedy who, for that matter, is by
no means lacking in similar tangi-
bilities. Thus none of the trio faced
any economic problem in flouting
their patron saint, Thespis, the
Icarian, and all his works.
With Hepburn in Hollywood, the
Marches will be found in retire
ment at their Sabine farm up in
New York State where they will
raise vegetables and commune with
nature. The reason they assign
seems, well, at least, more explic-
ative, than that given by Miss Hep
burn in abandoning a piece in
which she was receiving as never
before a warm and affectionate
demonstration of her personal ap-
peal and the magnetic attraction of
her histrionic art. AS for the An
trobi, as Broadway has come to
dub the pair, I ran into Fredric
March yesterday.
Antrobus Replies Bluntly.
why this farm aberration?" I
asked bluntly.
Because" came reply with equal
bluntness, 1--WE are tired, Florence
and land, besides, it is rather in
dicated in these times, is it not,
that those who can do SO ought to
turn to the soil and make things
grow? At any rate" he added de-
cisively, that is what we are going
to do So that definitely was that.
"The Marches. therefore, will as
sumo the role of son and daughter
to Ceres all summer?" I inquired.
Unless something important
comes up to change our plans" So
that also was that.
Persons, such as John Briscoe,
whose threatical wisdom is derived
from long years of association with
the drama believe that so long as
Miss Tallulah Bankhead remains in
the Wilder show as a symbolical
Lllith and general cut-up all will be
we'll at the Plymouth Theater, espe-
cially so if, as is hoped, Dorothy
Gish and Louis Calhern can be Sc
cured to replace the Marches. This
done, thoughts will cast ahead to a
touring company next fall and
winter by which time it is hoped
that the Marches, having garnered
full store of beets, tomatoes
kohlrabi, lentile, lima beans and
other legumes will once again asso-
ciate themselves with the elusive
mysteries of a play written by a
highbrow with the playful design OF
challenging the erudite and bring
ing perpleXity to the unlearned.
Call it The Follies,' if you will
Messrs. Shubert, ct al, but to saddle
your show with the ziegfeld trade
name will inevitably be regarded as
presumption by old-timers who knew
their original "Follies" in years gone
| by. This is by no means to say that
| the current revival at the Winter
Garden is not a hit. 1t is a smash
hit in all that the term implies
artistry aside.
1t is big, brazen, colorful, fam
boyant, noisy, funnyAat too few in.
tervals-and replete with lovely girls
who dance or merely strut and pose
But it lacks a unifying touch. 1t is
a medley of routine shoWmanship ir
which is found some beauty, inces-
SAINT liveliness and splendid cos
tuning and lighting. 1t lacks tune.
fulness, too.
Ziegfeid's Shade Offended.
In lieu of that lack something
haunting comes to mind out of thu
years, "a Pretty Girl Is Like Mel
ody." Who sung it back in thos.
dead days? Rose Dolores, Ruth
Pennington-who? I forget; it wa!
so long ago. But the melody linger;
on. So, the other night, did mem
ories of a Snowman who in his al
, too short life left a standard O.
revue, delicate in taste, infalliblt
in discrimination, sure in concoc
ton of varied appeal
Nor was it possible for Ilona Mas
sey, Sue Ryan, Nadine Gae and al
the rest of the female principals ant
chorines and dancers of the curren
offering to replace a vanished sis
terhood whose face and form mus
SSA ~l