Evening star., 1943-11-28
NEW YORK.

NEW YORK.
The New York theater has a
shame in its heart. Not the pro-
ducers, OF course, who shame less
easily, but those who are artists in
one sense or another. These, the
playwrights, actors, directors and
the better press agents-many Of
whom are a lot more artistic than
their employers-have come upon a
day they always thought they would
like to see. They have seen 1t and
are disappointed. 1t is not what
they thought 1t would be at all.
The day in question is that in
which the ,theater is almost Croe-
susly rich in spite of an almost
totally unworthy group Of produc-
tions.
Always this was to have been an
occasion for gloating. Gloating espe-
cially over the critics who. in re-
cent years, were deemed to have too
much power That power in terms
of box office is undeniably dimin-
ashed now. New York is bilious with
indigestible tourist hordes clamor-
Ing for something to see besides
movies, which they can see any
where. They don't bother to read
criticisms and no critic could keep
them from the theater if they did
read them. Strangely enough, how
ever, the critics are more resigned
to that than are those who had
longed to see just such phenom-
enon.
Apology Is Automatic.
1t Is not necessary for the out of
town critic on a sabatical in New
York to chide the Broadwayite for
the state of affairs. A dozen times
the apology came to this reviewer
during the past week before he even
got around to asking how it felt to
live in gigantic Coney Island
where every concession was running
full blast.
Its awful, really" the native
would begin. IT never thought I
would live to see the day when there
were so few good productions among
so many successful ones. From the
commercial standpoint it undoubt-
edly Is wonderful, but not enough to
keep 1t from being embarrassing"
Among the dozens Of theater peo-
pie of one kind or another, includ-
ing Frank Sinatra, whom we liter
ally bumped into in the Cort Thea
ter the night of the Saroyan OPEN
ing. there was none ready to defend
Gothams strange drama situation.
eve did not speak to Mr.. Sinatra,
merely bumped him with the right
shoulder of our blue suit, which we
are saving for the Sinatra club
which offers us the highest souvenir
price,
1t once was that you could hear a
regret or two bespoken here or there
for the popular star whose judgment
had proved faulty in the selection OF
a play. Not any longer. A play
that succumbs this season is just
that much relief from the aggregate
Of embarrassment which Broadway
feels for the shabbiness o. its goods.
They Go in Gladness.
Normally, for instance, some one
In the crowd of first-nighters at
William Saroyan's Get Away, Old
Man." would have had a thought of
coincidence for such popular figure
as Eddie Dowling, whose "Manhat-
tan Nocturne" had just closed. This
correspondent heard it mentioned
several times. but with an obvious
note of satisfaction that its absence
had reduced by one the bad plays
Of the year.
Miss Gypsy Rose Lee, a practical
woman among her other widely
known gifts. was among those pres
ent at the Cort Theater that night,
and to the best of this corre-
spondent's eavesdropping ability no
one remarked how sad it was that
her drama, "The Naked Genius"
had closed four days before. That
was consistent, apparently, with
Miss Lees own feeling and that of
her collaboration, George kaufman.
1t certainly was consistent with
the feeling toward that item which
was encountered elsewhere. The
Nil