University of Virginia Library

Broadway Beat

Theatre To The People

By STEVE WELLS

NEW YORK — Joe Papp is
a rarity among producers. As
head of the New York
Shakespeare Festival, he is a
man whose motives appear to
be pure and unselfish, a man
dedicated to the betterment of
theatre when most of his
colleagues are out for a fast
buck.

Papp's "Theatre to the
People" movement has been in
evidence for some time now,
but only in the last year has it
been widely recognized as a
significant hope for the
advancement of theatre in
general. In his Public
Theatre, which he sold to the
city a while back for $2.6
million with the understanding
that he could then rent it for
$1 a year, there are four
theatres which, as a rule, are
used as a sanctuary for new
and promising young talent.

Having launched Charles
Gordone and his Pulitzer
Prize-winning "No Place To Be
Somebody" two years ago, last
season Papp saw in 31 year-old
Vietnam war veteran David
Rabe a sensitivity and
theatrical awareness worth
developing, and produced
Rabe's play about a soldier
caught up in the military
process in Southeast Asia,
"The Basic Training of Pavlov
Hummel." The critics raved,
and suddenly Rabe was
everybody's candidate for Most
Promising Playwright of the
Year.

This season, Papp is
celebrating the success of
Rabe's second play, "Sticks
and Bones" (which he opened
at the Public last fall), by
moving it to Broadway later
this month. Like "Pavlov
Hummel," the play has as its
protagonist an American
soldier, the difference being
that "Sticks and Bones" takes
place after its soldier-protagonist
(David) has
returned home to his family,
blind yet more aware of
himself and the world than his
parents (Ozzie and Harriet)
would care to admit.

While the basic dramatic
irony which Rabe employs is as
old as Sophocles, the play
emerges partly as a cynical
cartoon and partly as straight,
serious criticism of The
American Way, which Rabe
depicts in the family unit, with
the father concerned only with
football games on television,
the mother only with shoving
food down her sons' throats,
and the kid brother only with
taking pictures and borrowing
Dad's car for a heavy date.

The play is more interesting
for what it attempts than for
what it fully achieves. Its main
drawback is that Rabe
fluctuates between realism and
fantasy so much at will that
we're not always sure how to
approach the play. It is fine
(and, incidentally, very
effective) for David's thoughts
about the Asian girl he left
behind to be shown to us by
having the girl move silently
around the stage; but when
Ozzie confronts the girl and
orders her out, this seems a
violation of stage convention
which clouds the issue at hand.

Jeff Bleckner's staging is
solid and, at times, beautifully
incisive. The acting is first-rate,
excellently straddling the line
between out-and-out caricature
and probing characterization.
Rabe is a playwright who
demands attention, and "Sticks
and Bones" is an imperfect
play which demands yours.

On the musical side, Papp
has transferred his production
of "Two Gentlemen of
Verona," which he presented
for free in Central Park last
summer as part of his annual
Festival, to Broadway.
Shakespeare's minor comedy
has been given a contemporary
flavor through Galt
MacDermot's rock-calypso
score and a zany edge through
John Guare's lyrics. But, for all
their efforts, the pleasures of
the evening are, well, minor.

The musical is never
offensively dull, but it never
varies from the low-key plateau
it establishes in the beginning.
There are a lot of songs (some
okay, most not), but no really
big or exceptional numbers to
take away. Likewise, there are
some splendid performances
(Raul Julia as Proteus in
particular), but no
show-stealing turn (despite the
attempt of some critics to
invest in Jonelle Allen a star
charisma that isn't there).

Mel Shapiro's direction
relies heavily upon yo-yos,
Frisbees, and raw energy to try
to make the show fun all
around. And to some,
including our own John
Herring who is bringing it here
next year under the auspices of
the Artists Series, it may well
be. But when material of this
caliber receives the trumpeted
acclaim that "Two Gentlemen
of Verona" has gotten, then
the musical theatre is in worse
shape than we have been
heretofore willing to admit.