SUBURBAN THEATER
595
But Suburbia today is less a geographical location than a state of
mind-in the fatuous 'fifties, spectators from Sutton Place
ali
well
as Scarsdale share much the same suburban aspirations and pre–
tensions.
The suburban couple is entirely different from such theatergoers
of the 'thirties and 'forties as the tired businessman, the conventioner,
the Junior League matinee lady, the political radical, and the intel–
lectual. They are the tired businessman's son and daughter-in-law,
on a quest less for wealth than status-better educated, more leisured,
more familiar with luxury and comfort. When they moved from their
parents' modest apartment to an expensively decorated ranch or town
house, the change in neighborhood signified a shift in their style of
life which was accompanied by a desire for cultural uplift. Exchang–
ing the old cabinet radio for a stereo hi-fi system, the vulgar still life
for a Picasso print, and the set of Compton's for a subscription to a
fashionable book club, they proceeded to leave behind-along with
rusty skates, broken dolls, and mildewed mahjong pieces--the family's
traditional Philistine attitude toward the theater. Hungry for vicari–
ous experience, a-political, brain-washed by socio-psychological con–
cepts, well read in theoretical books, well travelled, cheerily optimistic
though slightly desperate, more sexually experimental, somewhat
bored and emotionally exhausted, they are now on a compulsive quest
for cultural adventures, guided on their tour of Broadway by Brooks
Atkinson and Walter Kerr. Reversing their father's old bromide, they
might say, with considerably less pride, that they know something
about the drama, but they are not too certain what they like.
A New Broadway
In consequence, the atmosphere of Broadway is undergoing a
sea change. The theatrical occasion, once somewhat rowdy and re–
laxed, has now become rather solemn and portentous. One by one,
the old theaters are overhauling their tarnished vaudeville trappings
and reconverting to more gleaming and opulent appointments.
As
the
limousines out front grow longer and blacker, every evening begins
to take on some of the frenetic activity and ostentatious display of
opening night. To judge by the conversation of the hordes who
mingle under heated marquees to exchange greetings, if Broadway
once had to share its audience with the movie houses around the
comer, it is more likely to share it today with the Met, the Philhar-
