The Cavalier daily :: Wednesday, December 16, 1970 :: University of Virginia Library

NEW YORK - If a play can
"steal" a critic's mind, that is make
him become so engrossed in the
stage action that he forgets he is a
reviewer with a job to do, then
something is very, very right. Only
a few plays ever manage to do this,
in recent years, Arthur Miller's
"The Price" did it to me, as did
Mart Crowley's "The Boys in the
Band," Robert Marasco's "Child's
Play," and, most recently, Anthony
Shaffer's "Sleuth."

"Sleuth" is a suspense
melodrama which succeeds on three
levels. It is difficult to discuss the
play because it contains so many
twists and surprises that a critic has
to be extremely careful (and
somewhat cagey) in what he says if
future audiences are to enjoy the
thrilling entertainment to its fullest.

The Plot

The plot has to do with Andrew
Wyke, a writer of mystery stories,
who is visited one evening in his
country home in England by one
Milo Tindle who, it seems, wants to
marry Wyke's wife, a circumstance
to which Wyke is quite agreeable.
Wyke arranges for Milo to steal his
wife's jewelry so that Milo and she
can run off together, leaving Wyke
with the insurance money from the
jewels. The melodramatic events
that follow are sometimes exciting,
sometimes chilling, and always
entrancing.

Moreover, "Sleuth" manages to
be a parody of itself and its genre.
This it accomplishes primarily
through the character of Wyke,
who believes there should be more
romance and ingenuity in crime and
whose fictional creations become
part of him. All of which leads us
to the third level: playwright
Shaffer has also written a strong
character study, especially in the
case of Wyke.

The acting is a tour de force.
The three smaller roles are all
competently handled, but it is
Anthony Quayle as Wyke and Keith
Baxter as Milo who walk away with
all the honors. Both originated their
characters in London, where the
play first became a smash, and they
deserve more detailed praise than
the nature of their vehicle permits
me to write.

Clifford Williams' staging keeps
the pace fast, the characters
moving, and the tension building,
and the stately set which Carl Toms
has designed fits the mood, style,
and demands of the play perfectly.
There are some obvious, inescapable
contrivances in "Sleuth," but
what's important is that Mr.
Shaffer's first produced stage play
is witty, urbane, clever, deliciously
diabolical, devastatingly deceptive,
and not to be missed.

Disappointment

The most looked forward to
musical of the season has also
arrived and, sadly, is something of a
disappointment. Richard Rodgers'
"Two By Two," which has a book
by Peter Stone, lyrics by Martin
Charnin, and a charismatic star in
Danny Kaye, has a heavy advance
sale which will put it in the black
probably before the first day of
spring, but it isn't the superior
musical comedy which we expected
those experienced and talented
artists to turn out.

The show is based on Clifford
Odets' 1954 play, "The Flowering
Peach," and is a re-hashing of the
story of Noah and his ark in biblical
period but in modern terms. The
story focuses on Noah's family life
with his wife, three sons, and three
daughters-in-law.

Lacks Distinction

Although much of Mr. Rodgers'
music for "Two By Two" is
pleasant, it lacks the distinction of
his earlier work, the work which
the theater will remember him by,
Just because it is a Richard Rodgers
show, you wait for a
musical moment with the magic of,
say, "Climb Every Mountain" from
"The Sound of Music" or "Getting
to Know You" from "The King and
I" and when that moment doesn't
come, you feel a certain frustration.

Still, the score, in its modest
way, is melodiously appealing,
particularly when compared to
some of the music which has graced
Broadway in recent years. And Mr.
Charnin's lyrics, on the whole,
aren't bad ("Later on we'll watch
the sun parade the sky," "To
himself he's a wit/To the world he's
a pest/...An old man.") once you
weed out the few instances of tripe
("Pachyderms can come/Teeny
worms can come/Even germs can
come," "Poppa knows God/And
God knows Poppa knows best.").

Vulgarization

The real problem is Mr. Stone's
book. After a while you simply get
tired of the anachronistic
vulgarization and the constant
straining for dumb jokes (Noah to a
dove: "Never have sons. If you see
an egg that looks like a boy, you'd
better make an omelet."). Some
of the characters come across as
cheap caricatures of no interest
whatsoever. More sincerity is
desperately needed to eliminate the
tackiness.

Mr. Kaye is a delight as Noah,
wobbling across the stage at 600
years old and, later and
rejuvenated, prancing all around at
90. Mr. Kaye is an entertainer who
has complete control of his
audience at all times, and when he
is on stage the situation looks
brighter.

Joe Layton, who has to be the
most overrated director in the
business, has staged the show in an
adequate, conventional fashion.
Much of "Two By Two" is
tolerable and parts of it are more
than mediocre. But if a musical is
to be really good, something has to
shine, something has to catch fire,
something has to happen. And in
"Two By Two," something doesn't.

* * *

I have been requested by the
office of producer Harold Prince to
make it known to the University
community that the tickets for his
hit musical, "Company," which I
endorsed last month, are scaled so
that there are $4, $3, and $2 seats
on sale for each performance, in
order that theatre-going need not
be an expensive habit. As always, if
anyone is planning a trip to New
York and would like advice about
what shows to see and assistance in
obtaining tickets, feel free to
contact me.