Evening star., 1949-11-20
Genius Mean Stuff.
For Another Author
Metropo|e' Raises Why Questions
About Judqnent in the Theoter
By Jay Cormody


last gesture the star Of eropole IN Balti-
more Monday last week toss paperwesht through
It was throw full OF vehemence by sturdy built and
could have been Tracy o n @ ahg w m
take over the set then and there The Baltimore
audience was polite about applauded sympathetcaly
thoah courteous number Of curtain calls Tracy
did the professionals who dotted the lower floor OF Ford
metropolis" sealed from somewhere the
From point on the speculation the probable length
Of its play the blunt bewdered question:
Why was it ever produced?
Utterly hopeless family understandable when they
enthusiastic novce in the theater Meropoe
such humans produced by Max Cor
don with famous and profitable past whose hishsht
Roberta" and its director George Kaufman as gby ex-
playwng and direction as natural gifts and long ex-
# these two could make such srotesque
has happened to judgment in the theater?
full Of two critics playwright
three speculated this subject all the way back to
They agred that Gordon Kaufman Actor Tracy
justified giving thought idea of William Wal
After ALL idea arcica pafaphrase OF life on
magazne has been fascinating many people
It has become almost classic assumption OF
Broadway that great comedy or 1aree 70 pc iouna IN @
theme At time another all of the magazines outstanding
reported to have been at work It, James Thuber
Play Great Expectation.
intensity of feeling for the magazine has made
the play of the great expectations OF this decade
and part Of the one before it.
have been quite day in both their lives The script was right
themselves camer to be rid OF him.
play seasons-yng to think along with Mr. Gordon
and Kaufman-had offered such an original character
Original? No, unique.
Having with producer and director OF Metro
pole" point the returning Wasngtonans sud-
denly departed could not understand how such old tall
ented hear could have missed what obviously
showed nights That dramatic char
play and that authentic genius almost
impossible to capsule in play.
Heroes historical master spies and matinee idols who
third of their admirers these are easily
controlled by moderately agile playwrights and actors
Plays Hero Was Elsewhere.
elusive because they unique. Unique
its kind and in the Of Metropolis
man. he not there He New York conducting the
mystical rite Of being the most singular editor in the country
moving through the great legends modern
Journalism
imitation of him the stage Baltimore thing
that could have been left to Tracy could be left
Yet he beyond Tracy hagrantly beyond him in
play constructed and written Meropo The mimicry
good enough outline caught gnts Of the characters
hypochondria his addiction to milk and medicine of his noor
ousy bad mis- mispronunciation Of relatively simple
chaotic rual his hopeless nadequacy to deal with
relation that contributor his
disrust of all inanimate objects and publisher.
But all this off endless repetitous empty and boring
It in antest representative the
has been representing him weekly for "a and
has represented of beerwren sketches
more modestly intended.
left the people In the bound Washington,
probably Of the others Fod that night wondering
the theater make such basic mistake Metropoe
Mr. Gordon and Mr.. Kaufman doubt.