DRAMA NOW
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2.
Oscar Hammerstein deserves first place on any such list. His work
0
klahoma!
(the exclamation mark is his own) has been "hailed"
as a new genre, praised in at least one literary quarterly, awarded
a Pulitzer Prize by special dispensation, and not unfavorably com–
pared with
TheMagic Flute.
It is probably the outstanding theatrical
success of the war; and it is entirely representative of current trends.
In fact it belongs with the new Americanism in being folksy and so
damned wholesome; and also in being trite, cocksure, sentimental
and vacuous. On the stage the thing is decked out in gay color and
from time to time enlivened by tricky dancing. But in
all
drama,
including musical drama, color and dancing are only embellishment;
in this case the embellishment of a scarecrow.**
But perhaps it is beside the point to apply any critical criteria.
Oklahoma!
came to me in an anthology edited by Bennett Cerf and
Van
H.
Cartmell who
in
their foreword endorse Lee Schubert's re–
mark that "the box office never lies." They continue as follows: "It
is fashionable to poke fun at public taste, and to hold that no really
good play can be a financial success. The record, spread out on the
following pages, does not support such a theory." Spread out on the
following pages are the worst plays I have -ever read, such as
East
Lynne, Rip Van Winkle,
and
The Bat.
Of their three most recent
choices- Life with Father, Arsenic and Old Lace,
and
Oklahoma!–
the editors write: "That they are, from any viewpoint, the soundest
and most thoroughly representative of their type is an encouraging
augury to lovers of the theatre." Consequently: "American play–
wrights and American audiences can face the future with high hopes
and light hearts." No voice more authentically philistine has been
heard since Matthew Arnold cited a Victorian's prayer that "our
unrivalled happiness may last." With light hearts and heavy purses
the
100%
American playwrights and the
100%
American audiences
are to en
joy
the best of
all
possible theatres. The box office never lies,
and when asked how good these three plays were it replied with
aplomb: Two million dollars apiece.
3.
To move from Hammerstein to S.
J.
Perelman and Ogden Nash
is
to move one rung up the cultural ladder. But only one.
If
Okla–
homa!
is Broadway's idea of.folk art,
One Touch of Venus
is Broad-
**
Unlike James Agee I saw
Oklahoma!
on the stage. Anyway what Agee
said about it was true. You don't have to visit the Sahara to know what it's like.
