Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1948-08-15
London Stage
loves Its Hits
|ToBroadway
By Russell Londstrom
LONDON.


LONDON.
American showmanship Is the
acknowledged chief prop of q Lon
don stage now combating its worst
slump since the end of the war.
More and more, in the financially
uncertain seasons Of 1913, the West
End-though dimly illuminated in
an era OF austerity-has taken on
the theatrical color of Broadway.
The names Of actors and actresses,
of plays and musicals, Of play
wrights and tunesmiths, all famed
in New York, have won star billing
where domestic talent once held
forth virtually unchallenged.
Prime moneymakers in town for
more than a year are the imported
oklahoma" and annie Get Your
Cum" whose smash hit qualities
have prompted plenty Of heart
searching among the British song
composers and librettists.
"Annie" Draws, Too.
"Oklahoma!" q sellout for month
after month at historic and spacious
Drury Lane, has been seen by more
than 1900, 900 people since it opened
in April, 1947. It has taken more
than 400, 900 pounds ($1 SOC, 00O ex-
elusive of entertainment tax. which
runs to about $500 pounds ($11 ,200
a week. And this production. all
American except for one player,
promises to go on indefinitely.
"Annie," its success firmly based
on its tremendously popular score
and the ingratiating performances
of Dolores Gray and Bill Johnson,
the only Americans in the cast, has
drawn to the huge Coliseum nearly
as many, and its earnings are put
little less than those of okla
homa!"
Thanks largely to these two win
ners-and more recently katherine
Dunham's Caribbean Rhapsody
the American show has become an
institution here.
Naturally, there have been hops.
Producer Emile Littler's Office still
shudders over the recollection Of the
foldup of "Finian's Rainbow" This
show, which triumphed on Broad
way, set Littler back some 10000
pounds ($120,000).
Slow and Corny.
The sensational success of "Oke"
and annie" inevitably touched OIL
interminable discussions of the state
of the British musicals-and sug-
gested ways of improving them.
The question is: Are those shows
a badly needed bracer for the ailing
British musical comedy, or simply
very enjoyable outsiders which
shouldn't be allowed to influence
home styles?
The essential character Of the
British musical remains pretty much
the same, however. BY American
standards, the London species OF the
art is slow, old-fashioned, rather
corny.
However, the boom Of American
hits has injected into British must
cals-and intimate revues-a new
strain of satire, friendly yet wry, on
the popular and profitable importa-
tions.
The town is still talking about
Danny Hayes astonishing success
at the Palladium last winter-and
about Sophie fuckers conquest at
the Casino.
Plays Fare Sadly.
American plays have Jared less
prosperously than the musicals.
Anna Lucasta," which opened last
October, ranks high artistically and
at the box Office. Life With Father"
got through a years run-but with
no special distinction. II Remember
Mama" lasted only a few weeks.
-Four Hours to Kill" was an all-too-
prophetic a title. Clifford Odets'
Rocket to the Moon" starring
Yankee Yolande DOMAIN, came off
after a month. Family Portrait"
survived but briefly. Critics liked
the chamber operas, THE Tele-
phone" and The Medium" but the
public said no.
A midsummer arrival which won
generally enthusiastic welcome.
especially for the quality of its act
ing, was Tennessee Williams "Glass
Menagerie," starring Helen Hayes.
There is every reason to believe
that this will prove one of the
years major successes. Arthur
Miller's "All My Sons" with Joseph
Calleia and Margalo Gilmore,
which opened in June, was well re-
ceived by most reviewers, but 1t is
risky to predict how long it will
survive.
For the London theater, taken as
whole, slump assuredly is on,
though managers and producers
dislike the word. AS they put,
the current boX-office drag, Is no
more than a seasonal "slackening"
after the War-created boom.
The death rate among London
shows has been unusually high ever
since last fall.
The veteran Snowman, Sir Charles
Cochran, looks at it this way:
People, both in and out of the
theater, forget that it takes a war
to get every theater in the West
End playing to capacity. The nor
NAL peacetime routine is for lin
tied number of shows to prosper
and for the rest to keep going on
the overflow from the successes.
We are back to those days again.
People have less money and more
discrimination"