University of Virginia Library

The Broadway Beat

And The Theatre Season Drags On

By Steve Wells
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

NEW YORK - Perhaps the
saddest aspect of the current season
is that it has yet to produce one
truly fine American play of any
nature. With new works by Edward
Albee and Paul Zindel scheduled to
open in the next few months, there
is still hope. But for now, we can
but examine the fates of two new
comedies by men who are rated as
masters of their craft and a revival
of a 19th century European drama.

"The Gingerbread Lady"

Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread
Lady" is an interesting, fast-moving
skeleton of a play. It is about Evy
Meara, an alcoholic ex-singer who
returns to her Manhattan
brownstone after spending some
time in a sanitarium. She has
learned how to live without the
bottle. Or has she?

Of course she hasn't. We know
perfectly well that Evy will go off
the wagon by the second act, Here,
I think, is where Mr. Simon made
his first mistake. The theme has
been terribly overworked in the
past and therefore it is difficult to
get excited about seeing the
adventures of an alcoholic. But if
the author was determined to write
on such a theme, then he should have
at least given us some reason to care
about Evy as a person. What
separates her from the millions of
other alcoholics in the world that
she should warrant our special
sympathy? Absolutely nothing and,
as a result, we simply aren't able to
sympathize with her.

This is not the fault of Maureen
Stapleton, who gives a bravura
performance in the role. Nor is it
the fault of director Robert Moore
or anybody else other than Mr.
Simon himself. It is a
well-structured, often funny play
which never fails to hold your
attention. But its heart is missing.

One final word on the author's
development as a dramatist. Mr.
Simon claims that he wants to write
serious plays and not simply crank
out light comedies as he did
throughout the sixties. But is he
really doing that? His last two
efforts have contained just as many
laugh lines as his earlier works, the
only difference being in his obvious
and not always successful stabs a
profundity. The truth of the matter
is that "The Gingerbread Lady" and
last year's "Last of the Red Hot
Lovers" are both hybrids. He's been
trying to have the best of two
worlds, and it hasn't been working
out all that well. Neil Simon has
reached the point where he must
decide whether he's going to
continue as America's leading
comedy playwright or become a
serious dramatist. He can't have
both.

"Four On A Garden"

Whereas a play such as "The
Gingerbread Lady" deserves a
lengthy critical evaluation (more
than space here permits me), Abe
Burrows' new comedy, "Four on a
Garden," should be quickly
dismissed as the nadir of Mr.
Burrows' career. It is an evening of
four short sketches of sex. All of
the playlets are superficial, three of
them aren't even plausibly
developed, and to pass the evening
off as a comedy is comparable to
calling downtown Charlottesville
the garden spot of the world.

Carol Channing and Sid Caesar
participate in the disaster. Both
have my pity and Mr. Caesar has
my admiration for rising
significantly above the material,
which doesn't even approach the
caliber of the sketches on, say, The
Carol Burnett Show. At its best,
"Four on a Garden" is commercial
mediocrity; at it's worst, it is
simply amateurish garbage which
should be taken away - far, far away.

Aside from marrying Claire
Bloom, the smartest thing that
producer Hillard Elkins has done in
recent years is to star his wife in
two of Henrik Ibsen's finest plays
to be presented in repertory for the
rest of the season. "Hedda Gabler"
will open later this month; "A
Doll's House" has already opened
and is being heralded by most
everybody as The Great Women's
Lib Play. Perhaps today it is, but if
the play is to be praised, I think it
should be praised as good theatre
rather than topical propaganda.

Miss Bloom's Nora

Miss Bloom is exceptionally good
as Nora, the child-wife of Torvald
Heimer, and she makes the first two
loquacious, dramatically tranquil
acts more palatable than they
would be given a less talented star.
The fireworks are all in the third
act, and they are worth the long
wait. Miss Bloom and her co-star,
Donald Madden, make Nora and
Torvald's first and final
confrontation a scene of rare
poignance and surprising
credibility. There is no doubt of
Nora's maturation and ability to
survive on her own when walks
out the door; there is merely a
wistful sense of the loneliness that
suddenly confronts both her and
her husband.

The play has been smoothly
staged by Patrick Garland, and the
production emerges as a first-rate
handling of the often difficult
Ibsen. And even if all the play's
excitement is in one scene at the
end, that's one exciting scene more
that most of this season's plays
have had.