Evening star., 1949-05-22
Stages Designers
Merit Those eCheers
Sets and Lighting in Hit Plays
Are Among Best Features
By Joy Cormody

This free country and certainly theater
right to be polite-f they ever feel the urge
Yet form Of polenes that annoyed
q considerable number in every such audience.
This the tendency Of certain patrons applaud almost
kind stage setting brightly wschesr living
with adjacent lighted sinful looking boudoir in
Frederic perfectly conventional
ments for snk in have for getting
unmeted sduaon from people who thought really ought to
do something about such shining SAMPLES Of stage decor
Designers Work Change.
there has been end this painful situation
and those responsible the designers Not the ones
wicked Loda bedrooms and East side apartment kitchens
with chntzes but rather their beers the profession
Among Of atmosphere finds
Of the most glamorou in the drama that known
favoraby public Of the older masters
within the narrower limits Of show business.
Yok happiest stages Of the dotted with hits
whose designers stand with the most gamorous other
wise associated with the productions.
is impossible for instance that could walk out Of
part in the impact Of that musical play quite as definitely
Richard Rodgers Oscar Hammerstein H. Mary Martin Ezio
imaginative work they
his they are important and they are credited to him by every
grateful customer.
SALESMAN" sheer Genius.
Although is by means varied and cooful the real
specimen Of Mezner design genius the moment the setting
Salesman"
Brooklyn apartment house 1t house that actually
not house ALL merely the skeleton of dwelling with
snndst th t % ~ aus t avI e,h p1ts. eHDy .t, 70
Miller 1t setting that kind of miracle of adaptabty
In that when the time OF the play the present. the house
house disappear
when the action into fashback.
The builder Of pretty boudor would
by the demands Of setting this Mner coined
Death Of Salesman" Yet 1t
portion of the applause which nightly
double-prze play.
WOrkE
Another design that superlatey fine achievement the
greatly varied which emue for
kiss Me- Kate This hit has earned great deal Of justified
applause connected music
the Spewacks for the book Alfred
Morrison as the principal players.
Yet there those sharp
the show think Ayers has made the
its engaging charm His job that of time and
between 1S49 Baltimore and ancient Padua
laborious changes but those which
flick OF switch II production without which Kiss
might have been impossible brightest
hits New York has known years.
Still another corking design job which
current glamor that which Howard
Girls Co. This is fppant. irreveren Bobby
kind OF comedy carnival with happens
Washington. 1t all
departmental buildings to the Mayowe
Mr. that Washington these areas at least
. pretty attractive community.
Taste Is Elevated.
These particularly eloquent specimens
do with imagination that which
into the writing acting and direction plays
instances cited such is impossible
setting and lighting consistent with qualities Of
the productions
Each Of them in its special to sharp
the part Of heaergoes place
in odays best theater Collectively to
point where standard sets will be merely
certainly not worthy of that old fashioned applause