426
MARTIN DUBERMAN
role in
Breed
and Harold Scott as the lead in
Jero
- the latter a perfect
incarnation of the hustling evangelical: the soft, silken, beautifully
articulated voice, the arch, charming, slightly effeminate manner....
Rosalyn Drexler's
The Line of Least Existence,
the appeal of which
lies in its mannered, quick-fired, Marx Brothers-like poetry, was badly
served by a Judson Theatre production which, in its slow pacing and
spun-out stage business, worked directly against the script's strengths.
. . . Rochelle Owens, Drexler's rival for the unwanted title of Queen of
off-off-Broadway, was represented this season by
Istanboul.
It had some
amusing moments, and a first-rate creation in the character of St. Mary
of Egypt, but was badly marred by the usual failings of cellar theater:
frantic self-indulgence and a confusion between fantasy and thought.
. . . Despite Broadway's detractors, its production standards, at their
best, continue to provide the gauge of excellence against which other
theatrical work must be measured. That fact was again driven home
this year by Alan Schneider's fine production of Robert Anderson's
sentimental (though occasionally moving)
I Never Sang for My Father
and especially by Alan Webb's superb performance as the father....
The same high standards were evident in the production of Jay Allen's
disjointed though frequently charming adaptation of Muriel Spark's
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Zoe Caldwell's conception of the cen–
tral character, though a little broad for my taste, was carried through
with admirable control and elan. . . . Broadway showed up far less
well in Tennessee Williams'
The Seven Descents of Myrtle.
The self–
caricaturing script might well have defeated any director, but it seemed
to me that Jose Quintero failed to get the best out of a talented cast,
and dissipated instead of focusing the play's limited tension. . . .
Edward Albee's downward hurtle continued unchecked in the slick plot–
ting and banal moralizing of
Everything in the Garden.
It may be, as
many critics have reported, that the production of Albee's
Mao-Box–
Mao
this season in Buffalo represents a new departure for him; if so,
it is overdue. Albee, as of now, no longer has a definable style or audi–
ence; his posturing and platitudes have lost him the intellectuals, while
his residual iconoclasm makes him too threatening and obscure for
the suburbs.... Israel Horovitz's
The Indian Wants the Bronx
marks
the debut of a playwright closely identified with the city and able
to
reproduce its special rhythms. Horovitz's considerable strengths include
an ability to imagine fresh situations, to toss off some striking lines and
to fuse terror and humor. As yet, he is inept at transitions and can
be
clumsy in his development of narrative and character. His three act
play,
Line,
due this fall on Broadway, should tell us more about the
range of his talents. . . . The double bill of Sam Shepard's
Red Cross
