Word: booked
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...your Feb. 9 article on my book, The Privilege Was Mine: I should be very happy indeed with your review, had you not reproached me for Russian nationalism. My greatest wish is to see Hungary, Poland, etc., regain their independence, but neither in Moscow during the Budapest uprisal, nor afterward was I optimistic enough to believe that the Soviets would surrender (without a new World War) a system on which they think reposes their very existence. Who could expect the masters of the Kremlin to act differently in this crisis...
...Juno (book by Joseph Stein, music and lyrics by Marc Blitzstein, dances by Agnes de Mille) is a Pyrrhic victory of Broadway talent over an Irish genius. This musical version of Sean O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock paradoxically mutes O'Casey's inner music with song, fetters his soaring spirit with dance, and deflects the lyric flow of his dialogue into prosy pools of talk...
Language was not the only trouble. The story itself seemed dated. When the book was published in 1940, Hemingway hardly had to explain why a teacher of Spanish from Montana would give up everything to fight in Spain. But today Robert Jordan, even in the hands of as good an actor as Jason Robards Jr., is hardly more than a cliché cut out of old newspapers. Maria Schell was moving enough as Maria, but the sentimentally written character scarcely seemed real, while Maureen Stapleton lacked the necessary hardness for Pilar. Eli Wallach was superb as the irresponsible gypsy Rafael...
...book, The Professor and I (Appleton-Century-Crofts; $3.95), Dorothy Van Doren reveals that her husband is an addict "not of the super, the egghead, type of program . . . but of mysteries, westerns, crime stories, true stories and a quiz or two. He is lost. I get myself comfortable on the living-room sofa by the fire with a book, and presently I hear the beginning of the idiot commercial and know it has started again. Sometimes I watch too; sometimes I stick to the book. But the professor is faithful-all too often he is faithful. One evening there...
...book's faults are balanced, if not completely overcome, by the esprit of the players, a few good voices, a few fine songs, and a few clever lyrics. The most successful part of Busy Bodies is the cast. Every member seems to enjoy his role and manages to convey this delight to the audience. Even the actors who are supposed to sing, and can't, don't seem to be embarrassed by their inability. Those who can sing do it very well, and though there are no outstanding voices on stage, there are no really unpleasant ones either...