Street
Scene
Two Tar Heels are help¬
ing lo make lliis play an
outstanding hit in Xow
York this season.
By IMIY KISIIOP
ONE would never imagine, on
seeing the requests for tick¬
ets pouring in. that there
ever was any doubt about the hit
quality of "Street Scene,” the dra¬
matic musical which opened last
month in New York City and which
stars two North Carolina celebrities
of screen and opera, Anne Jeffreys
and Norman Cordon.
There was no doubt about the
show's quality in the minds of Miss
Jeffreys. Cordon, and others in the
cast. But to others, less emotion¬
ally tied to it. there was consider¬
able question. The show had a
pre-Broadway run in Philadelphia
and drew mixed notices from the
reviewers. It had poor support at
the boxofllce, and the word in
theatrical circles is that it lost
$50,000 during that three-weeks
preliminary. It was scheduled to
open in New York on January 9
at the Adclphi Theatre, but an¬
other production was alerted to be
ready to take over the Adclphi
since things looked very gloomy
at the boxoffice.
Then to New York
But. like the stars and the cast,
the management felt that "Street
Scene” was a "New York show."
one that might find life bumpy on
the road but would make up for
it when it reached Broadway. And
so it was that "Street Scene” came
to town. This Pulit/.er Prize win¬
ner of 1929, a gloomy and sordid
account of life. love, hate and death
in a New York tenement, had been
set to music by Kurt Weill and
Langston Hughes. They had not
made a "musical" of it in the sense
that one thinks of "Oklahoma!" and
"Carousel." both of which are musi¬
cal versions of straight dramatic
Kieces. In reality the composers
ad converted "Street Scene" to
opera, but “opera" is an unpopular
word except at the Metropolitan:
and so it was billed as “A Dramatic
Musical."
Norman Cordon, native of Washington. N. C.. Anne Jeffreys, formerly of
Goldsboro, and Polyna Stoska from Heaven only knows where.
A complete, uninterrupted per¬
formance of "Street Scene” was
given at the Adclphi on the night
before its formal opening. There
was a full house of friends of the
cast and management and various
ethers who had been invited. It
was definitely a "friendly" audi¬
ence. But they didn't seem to know
what to make of the play. At inter¬
mission, people stood around in
the lobby, silent or vainly making
conversation about things other
than the show that they were see¬
ing. Whether they were gloomy
about the show's prospects or be¬
cause of its depressing nature. I
do not know. But they said little
or made non-committal remarks
such as "Miss Jeffreys certainly is
pretty, isn't she?"
Fingers Crossed
The show opened while every¬
one at the Playwrights' Company
kept fingers crossed. If the critics
had their fingers crossed, they
quickly uncrossed them and went
to work on dictionaries and type¬
writers. They wheeled out every
superlative adjective ever con¬
ceived. Very often it is the com¬
plaint of the playwright or the
composer that the critics did not
"understand" him. Rice. Weill and
Langston could have no such com¬
plaint that Friday morning.
Brooks Atkinson of the Times
called it “sidewalk opera" and
spoke of Hughes' "affectionate lyr¬
ics." Howard Barnes headed his
Herald Tribune review: "Bravo!”
The News' John Chapman said:
" ‘Street Scene* is a far from ordi¬
nary event in the theatre, and I
salute the courage, imagination
and skill of those who have made
it." Variety, the trade paper of the
theatre, said with characteristic
punch: "Anyone who. for the sake
of one or two arias, has sat through
three boring hours of guff about
dragons, sorcerers, sea -hidden
baubles and the like at the Metro¬
politan Opera emporium will be
grateful for a modern production
on an intelligent, timeless theme
that has continuous drama. How of
good music and excitement.”
Speaking of the shaky beginning
of "Street Scene." Miss Jeffreys
said: "Many people were confused
because they expected another
'Oklahoma!' or ‘Carousel’ and they
didn't get it. We in the cast had
faith in it and never let down.
Once we got to New York, we
( Continued on page 22)
THE STATE FrBRUARV 8 1947
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