Word: behrman
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Exactly what the style, type, and manner of "The Pirate" were meant to be, its three acts could not quite decide. For in his latest "extravaganza" S. N. Behrman has put together an incongruous conglomeration of purposes and a complete lack of originality which even occasionally witty repartee, lavish production, and the adequate acting of Lunt and Fontanne cannot rescue...
...from there on everyone, especially the author, seems confused. Is it a comedy of manners, a bedroom farce, a philosophic romance, or a static vaudeville show? Unfortunately, it winds up with what looks too much like a prolonged curtain call. The dialogue, on which most of S. N. Behrman's plays depend, is laborious in its humor, forced in its numerous modern references, and "stuck in" like the book of a musical comedy. Songs and dances, stereotyped operetta characters, a gaudily colored scene, and some extraneous fill-in material complete this similarity with a musical...
...scenery and costumes of nineteenth century West Indies. Several imaginative mechanical devices, along with the panorama of color, attempt to liven up the pace. But color cannot move a stationary figure, nor brighten a static line. Bravura in production must have support in the script, and Mr. Behrman has let everyone down...
...Jimmy Durance, and ranging from Cole Porter tunes to an all-Negro Carmen-are already set, scheduled, or signed for. There will be more vaudeville. There will be comedies by Lindsay & Grouse (the adapters of Life With Father), John Van Druten, Philip Barry (starring Katharine Hepburn), S. N. Behrman (starring Lunt & Fontanne). But Comedy-Writers Kaufman & Hart, Clare Boothe, Rachel Crothers, Noel Coward have nothing announced; nor have Eugene O'Neill, John Steinbeck, Lillian Hellman, Clifford Odets. Katharine Cornell plans to revive Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Paul Robeson may go to Broadway with Othello (TIME...
...testing in workshop productions. Harvard did not agree, so Baker took his Workshop to Radcliffe and developed it there until the skeptical parent was finally convinced in 1913. Stage was no longer a child. Baker modestly taught drama to such budding pupils as Philip Barry, Sidney Howard, S. N. Behrman, George Abbott and Eugene O'Neill, when, in 1924, Edward S. Harkness offered to donate a completely equipped auditorium to the University. This time the parent was definite. Stage should be seen and not heard; taught and not acted. Harkness and Baker were told by President Lowell that "The drama...