Evening star., 1954-04-26

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The pause, refreshing or
otherwise, which remains to be
seen, will be filled with Hopes
impersonation of the late Eddie
Foy. He will be a partner in
the Paramount enterprise of
producing a film biography of
the famous song-and-dance man.
It was a fatty adventurous
life, in the theater and out, that
the father Of the seven little
Foys lived until his death in
1928 at the age Of II. :. There
will be no dearth of dramatic
material for the authors of
Hopes first true-life character
role.
PEOPLE: Carol Charming, who
waited around a couple of sea-
sons for the musical version of
"Pygmalion," is back in the af-
fections of Broadway as Rosa
lind Russell's successor in "Won-
derful Town" Reminded
again of what a great girl she
Is. several music-makers are
thinking how brightly useful Miss
Charming could be for their
projects. Ezio Pima is an
other absentee who will return
to New York next season. :.
He will play the Cesar role in
the musical version of Fanny"
>. S. NJ Behrman and Joshua
Logan are the writing talents
who have made the adaptation
Of the Marcel Pagnol trilogy.
-. Fanny" is a fall project that
just might get a pre-Broadway
polishing job in Washington.
Just might. however.
May II is an exciting date in
the books of New Workers.
That's the Phoenix theater's
opening night for Chekov's "The
Sea Gull" with cast that in
cludes Montgomery Cliff, Maui
reen Stapleton. Judith Evelyn,
Will Geer, June Walker, Sam
Jaffee and Kevin Mccarthy. ..,
1t could be an even bigger hit
than the off Broadway houses
'The Golden. Apple" years best
musical which just last week
moved up town. +. Incidentally,
Cliff heads "The Sea Gull" cast
solely by coming first alphabetic-
ally. q. . This is how it is at the
Phoenix.
FESTIVAL: The years hap
piest theater event could be one
Richard Aldrich has conceived
for his Cape Theater, Dennis,
Mass, this summer. He has
booked Helen Hayes for four
weeks, starting July 3, in a
Helen Hayes festival. It is
the first time this has ever hap
pened in summer stock. :.
Patiently it could not happen to
a more gifted or loveable actress.
N4dSS1C> III "IldU GfC1y y
Woman Knows. Lucy Ransdell
in THE Wisteria Trees" and
Mrs. Larue in Mrs. McThing,"
will be the first three roles in
the series The fourth, and
most exciting. is very likely to
be a pre-Broadway tryout.
Now" Mr.. Aldrich informs
this department. II shall start
working on Katharine Cornell
and Tallulah Bankhead to see if
we can persuade them to join
festivals in their honor at
Dennis!"
PROJECTS: With Maxwell
Anderson's "Huckleberry Finn"
musical deep in abeyance, Catho-
lie University is neck-deep in it's
own "Huck Finn" as it's spring
musical original. 1t is the
work-music, lyrics and book
of George Herman, a second
year graduate student. Leo
Brady. author and performer
connected with some of the uni
versity'S best previous musicals,
will direct "Huck Finn" opens
May 7, for a fortnight's run.
Arena stages blithest spirit,
Frances Sternhagen, will be
leaving the repertory company
upon the conclusion of "Blithe
Spirits" run May /. After
playing II principal roles in 13
Arena productions this season,
Miss Sternhagen, will join Play
ers' Inc. at Olney theater for
the summer. -. It has been 81
years, if you did not know
either. since there has been a
screen version of Defoe's Robin
son Crusoe." This is about
to be remedied by the release
of the Dublin Gate and Abbey
Theater version of the classic
starring Dan O'Herlihy. For
all its Irish cast of countenance,
the new CruSoe was filmed on
the western coast of Mexico.
X X X
MEMOS: Boxoffice seat sale
for Ballet Theater's eight days
at the National, beginning May
2. starts today. And the
Shubert opens its boxoffice sale
of tickets to The Moon Is Blue"
which opens at that theater next
Sunday .. Opening tomorrow
night will be the University of
Maryland's annual spring musl-
cal, this time Cole Porter's ANY
thing Goes" 1t will run
through Saturday night at the
campus central auditorium. :.