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CLIFTON AVENUE - CINCINNATI 20, 01110

Thui—
Sday, October 5, 1950
— — – —

Modern Theater

DETROIT JEWISH CHRONICLE

Page 7

Beth El Consecrates Children

(From Preceding Page)
assurdely America's outstanding
Oscar Hammerstein and Richard playwright, the man whom the
Rodgers, and Jerome Choderov critics agree is most likely to live
(collaborations with Joseph in anthologies, as well as in the
Fields) two each.
theater of the future.
Another way of judging the
Two Jewish playwrights come
quality of plays' of Jewish auth- closest to him—Lillian Hellman
orship is to check the list of plays and the youthful Arthur Miller.
that have won the Pulitzer Prize Miss Hellman's studies of deca-
of the annual New York Drama dence, her Little Foxes and An-
Critics Award. The Drama Critics other Part of the Forest, the
have made eleven selections in family that again came to life this
recent years, four of which year in the Marc Blitztein musi-
were to Jewish authors.
cal drama, Regina, are note-
In the 29 years that the Pulitzer worthy pieces of dramaturgy on
judges have made selections, the a par with mtaill of O'Neil.
laurels went six times to Jewish
And her Watch on the Rhine in
playwrights.
which she had her say on Nazism,
One play, Death of a Salesman,
and The Children's Hour , are
by Arthur Miller, produced in
of honest and stark realism,'
the year 1948-49, won both the plays
as well as social perception.
Pulitzer and Critics' awards.
Then there is Arthur Miller,'
Only two other plays have sim-
who achieved greatness with The '
ilarly won the accolade of both
groups, the William Saroyan The Death of a Salesman, a play that'
tears your heart out because of
Time of Your Life in 1939-40 anci4 its literal and recognizable truth
the Tennessee Williams A Street as well as its psychological depth
Car Named Desire in 1947-48.
and understanding of the empti-
Besides Death of a Salesman, ness of the American standard of
the other plays of Jewish author- success.
The newly enrolled children of the primary department of the
ship to have won the Pulitzer
Religious School of Temple Beth
Miller showed great promise, El were consecrated by Dr. Benedict Glaser at the annual consecration service held Sunday
Prize are: Street Scene by El-
morning,
Oct.
1.
The four-year-olds are Donna Adler, Janis Baker, Ralph Beckman, Shirley Beer-
mer Rice (1928-29); Of Thee I and won high acclaim, with his
Sing by George S. Kaufman and earlier All My Sons, in which, holm, Byron Block, Michael Bennett, John M. Bookston Jr., Amy Carroll, Dena Clamage, Susan
Morrie Kyskind with music and through a war profitering theme, Clamage, Frederick Cohn, Carla Conn, Charles Davis, Diane Fantle, Gerald Friedenberg, Barbara
lyrics by George and Ira Gersh- he also showed his scorn for the Friedman, Jill Gaynes, Richard Gershenson, Josh Gittlen, Paula Glazer, Joyce Gold, Carol Gotts-
win (1931-32); the first musical great American success story, chalk, Polly Greenblatt, Peggy Gross, William Harley, Ilene Harris, Joan Iloffman, Robert Kaplan,
ever to be so honored, Men in Miller has had only three plays Louise Katcher, Thomas Lemberg, Julie Lovinger, Frederick Lynn, Brian Mark, Paula Marks, Nancy
White by Sidney Kingsley (1923- produced and, at 35, he is the Meyer, Rudene Meyersolni, Margaret Morgenstern, Barbara Miller, Steven Miller, William Nicha-
24); You Can't Take It With critics' favorite to succeed O'Neil min, Karen Rands, Robert Rosen, John Rosenberg, Bruce Rosensweet, Barry Rothenberg, Earl Roth-
You by, George S. Kaufman and as America's leading playwright. stein, Andrew Rubiner, Elaine Schechter, Jan Schliff, Erice Schmier, John Segall, Ruth Selitsky,
Sidney Kingsley, Elmer Rice, Robert Shaw, Barbara Sims, Sandra Shwyder, Lisa Weiss, Susan Werbe, Nicia Weiss, Ellen Willens
Moss Hart (1936-37) and South
Pacific by Richard Rodgers and Clifford Odets and Moss Hart and Murray Yoffee. With the children are, left to right, Karl Bernard and John Segall who partici-
Oscar Hammerstein 2nd (with must also be considered among pataed in the ceremony of the handling down of the Torah from generation to generation; Dr. B.
the major serious American Benedict Glazer, Rabbi Sidney Akselrad and Dr. Max Winslow, chairman of the religious school
Joshua Logan) (1949-50).
•
committee.
The other plays to win the theatrical writers. They rate in
Critics' Award are: Watch on the the same category as the non-
Rhine by Lillian Hellman (1940- Jewish Maxwell Anderson, Rob- missed lightly, but who on the and composers have been in the
Sherwood and Sidney How- other hand seems to lack the 'trea- vanguard .of this development.
41); The Patriots by Sidney ert
ard.
tivity to write on his own. A
Kingsley (1942-43) and All My
For many years starting from
With Men in White, Dead End, former New York Times drama the early years of the century,
Sons by Arthur Miller (1946-47).
and Detective Story, his most re- critic, he became the theater's Sigmund Romberg, Franz Lehar,
• • •
slice of life, he added psy- most effective play doctor.
Otto Harbach, Oscar Straus, and
BUT ENOUGH OF statistics. cent
The Business Men's Group of
chological
to his realistic
He was at his best, both as a even Jerome Kern continued the the
How do the Jewish playwrights portrait to insight
City of Hope (formerly. Los
write
his
most
ma-
play
doctor
and director, in the tradition of Victor Herbert
Angeles Sanatorium) will bring
shape up with their contempor- ture play.
era of the fast moving, satirically cteerge• id. Cohen broke the al the "Borschtcapades" to Music
aries? Will any one of them
• • •
cynical years of the great dis- most solid Jewish phalanx of Hall at
achieve immortality, or even be
ELMER RICE, back in 1914, illusionment that followed the musical comedy writers as he popular
well remembered 50 years from wrote On Trial, the first court- Wall Street debacle of 1929.
waved the flag and quickened prices f o r
now?
room drama, a play that had a
f our eve-
He also displayed his technical the tempo of his contribution.
It is pretty generally agreed most significant effect on the virtuosity with Edna Ferber in
But except for the Ziegfield, n i ng per-
that the greatest playwrights of theatre for many years.
such romantic efforts as The Al Jolson type of revue there formances
the 20th, century—the ones to
Then he gave us Counselor- at- Royal Family, Minick, and Dinner was nothing new in the musical start-
whom the word genius have at law, a realistic study of the am- at Eight. And with Marc Con- field of that era. The tired busi- ing Oct. 30.
various times been applied—are bitious, young Jewish lawyer, and nelly, he co-authored the de- ness man wanted either a saucy
Albert
George Bernard Shaw, Eugene as his great excursion into real- lightful fantasy, Beggar on Horse- revue, or a group of romantic Fruman
O'Neil and Sean O'Casey—more ism, there was Street Scene.
back, perhaps the best American melodies strung together on an has been
than a slight dash of old Erin.
gamed
play
of its kind, and such amus- inane libretto:
Fifteen or so years ago, Clifford
Shaw may very well be Shake- Odets was the Arthur Miller of mg whimsies as Dulcy and Mer-
George S. Katffman and Mor- chair-
speare's successor, as he has pro- his day. A great one-act play, ton of the Movies.
rie Ryskind, along with George man, with
claimed himself. Surely the evi- Waiting for Lefty, was followed
But whatever the reason, the and Ira Gershwin went Rodgers Alex Sklar
Eugene Epstein
dence of the last season—the fact by Awake and Sing, an unsenti- George S. 'Kaufman of today and Hart one step better in con- as co-chair-
that his The Devil's Disciple and mentalized portrait of Jewish seems to have lost his touch. Per- triving Of Thee I Sing, which man and treasurer and Russell
Caesar and Cleopatra were among family life in the Bronx. Then haps he should be evaluated as was the first musical to ever Nida in charge of ticket sales.
Mail order tickets can be ob-
the outstanding hits of the year— came Golden Boy, a study of the the critic back stage, the man win the Pulitzer Prize.
would tend to bolster the Shaw prize fighter who couldn't stand who with unerring accuracy could
Irving Berlin wrote the war- tained by writing to Mr. Nida,
ego, if it were so in need. But prosperity and Rocket to the pick a play's flaws, and correct time favorite, This Is The Army, 2017 Penobscot Bldg., or by phon-
then Shaw is in a class by him- Moon.
and the swash buckling Annie ing WO. 1-3256.
them before opening night.
Eugene Epstein, chairman of
self.
• • •
Get Your Gun.
But a combination of Holly-
Who can begin to measure wit- wood, and too great an emphasis
The late Kurl Weill, working the program committee for the
There are few playwrights to
ticisms with Shaw; who can so on propaganda, seems to have pre-
mainly with Maxwell Anderson, Nov. 19 banquet, reports that
engagingly contrive parlor de- vented Odets from achieving his liken to Sean O'Casey. From the wrote such serious music dram- plans are proceeding for that af-
bates as the great G.B.S.; who great promise. His The Big Knife, realism of his Plough and t h e as as "Knickerbocker Holiday" fair which will be held at the
can dress up serious discussions of the season before last, was a Stars and Juno and the Paycock, and this year's "Lost In the Bel Aire Terrace Room.
—even propaganda—in the bal- bitter assault on the morals of he has proceeded to a mystical, Stars."
almost religious type of play such
anced cadences of good humor?
But it was Richard Rodgers, Bnai Brith Lists Plans
Hollywood that had fervor and
There's the late Philip Barry, strength, but nevertheless didn't as Within the Gates.
now teamed with Oscar Ham-
Perhaps Marc Connelly in Beg- merstein, 2nd, who created a
who gave us some of the best quite come off.
for BBYO Programs
gar
on Horseback and Green Pas- new type of American musical
American comedies of manners—
Moss Hart may well have been
James N. Laker, BBYO chair-
sophistication with a touch of included in the group with Behr- tures, of the Americans, had some by injecting folk lore and theme man of the Greater Detroit Bnai
of
the
poetry
and
creativity
of
mysticism.
into Oklahoma. This was followed Brith Council, announces that
man, Molnar et. al., but of recent
There's S. N. Behrman who has years his plays have been more O'Casey. Then Molnar, with by "Carousel, Allegro and South any lodge wishing to have a
amusingly and wisely discussed serious and less farcical and sat- Liliom, which was later to be- Pacific, until today plot is now BBYO show scheduled, must
Hitlerism, Communism and other irical. His first play, a collabora- come the beautiful musical Ca- considered an integral part of make arrangements through its
topical matters in the finest prose tion with George S. Kaufman, rousel, had some of it, and S. the American musical.
own BBYO chairman.
This, then, is the record of 50
written on this side of the Atlan- was the hilarious takeoff on Ansky with the medieval Jewish
There will be a limited number
tic.
Hollywood, Once In a Lifetime. legend, The Dybbuk displayed years in the theater, an honor- of engagements and the lodge
the
mysticism
that
is
so
present
able
achievement
in
Jewish
There's Noel Coward with his
Then followed six other col-
program chairmen are asked to
creativity—although one studded
witty box office sex-sesses, an laborations with Kaufman, in- in O'Casey.
The power of the early O'Casey, with a more than nodding ac- invite their chapters as well as
urban writer without -too much cluding the Pulitzer Prize win-
other lodge guests, so that every-
substance.
ning You Can't Take It with You, the righteous indignation and quaintance with the failure that one will have the opportunity of
wrath,
were
to
be
noted
in
is
an
inevitable
part
of
theatri-
There's Ferenc Molnar, the after which Hart went his own
seeing the youth groups perform.
Sholom Asch's God of Vengeance, cal production. On the whole,
father of the Viennese school of way.
boudoir philosophy and, in
He brought the psycho-analy- in which Rudolf Schildkraut gave the balance sheet is weighted in
France, we have Henri Bernstein tical couch to the theater in Lady so memorable a performance in favor of good, if not always Ballet Russe to Stage
and Sascha Guitry. And there's in the D'ark, treated tenderly the a play which showed the seamy great, theater.
Six Performances Here
John Galsworthy and Somerset plight of the divorced child in side of Polish ghetto life in much
The Ballet Russe de Monte
the
same
way
that
O'Casey
por-
GUY
NUNN
TO
SPEAK
Maugham, Shaw's English com- Christopher Blake and good na-
Guy Nunn, director of the Carlo will present six perform-
patriots, both polished and ex- turedly and lovingly spoofed the trayed the Dublin of the Irish
UAW's radio department and ances at Masonic Auditorium, be-
perienced phrasemakers of the theater in one of his lesser ef- rebellion.
To proceed from O'Casey to CKLW news commentator, will ginning Thursday, Oct. 12.
forts, Light Up the Sky. Hart,
theater.
Included in the cast will be
No Shaw any of them, but in still youthful, is one of our best the American musical may not be speak at the Evening Discussion
Behrman, Molnar and Bernstein theatrical technicians and now an orderly progression, but in the Group at 9 p.m., Wednesday at Alexandera Danilova and her
we score three top notch play- that the choice of subject matter interest of concluding this over- the Center on "Labor Views`the dancing partner Frederic Frank-
lin. They will appear with Gert-
wrights who can at least be men- is growing more serious may yet long survey, it must be made. News."
rude Tyven, Yvonne Chouteau,
emerge as a major theatrical And we can start with the un-
tioned in the same paragraph.
Whether for the latest news or Oleg Tupine and Yvette Chauvire.
equivocal statement that America
In the realm of the drama, in figure of lasting value.
the serious and foreboding real- This, perhaps, is as good a time has led in the development of the the best in advertising, it always
The deadline of the Jewish
personalities, the ailing Eugene as any to discuss George S. Kauf- musical play to its present high pays to read the Jewish Chronicle
Chroniclo is noon on Mondays.
O'Neil is supreme; he is most man, who certainly can't be dis- , esteem, and that Jewish writers the year 'round.

City of Hope
Plans Musical

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