Word: casts
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...evening is partially redeemed by the valiant efforts of a very fine cast who are forced to mouth such distinguished lines...
...some slow moments, especially in the beginning, when a home-style funeral takes place. Things pick up with the arrival of Alan Rinsler as Buddy, the son returned from college. His two patter songs about hitchhiking and airplanes are high points in the production. The other members of the cast are also capable, especially Anne Rindlaub as Mom and George Brown as Lou, the cowboy. John Bernard is a sincere Pop with a marvelous farmer accent, and T. T. Meyers is fine as a fiery neighbor...
...many stock situations, which compete with abundant sets of uninspired lines in what seems to be a race for expectability. Even love rears its precious little head to add a tired touch of creeping sentimentality. And, regrettably, the author has felt satisfied with stocking the stage with a cast of cliches: the idealist; a shabby-willed congressman who needs an issue; his smug colleague in the other Party; two excessively stupid sleuths from the FBI; a secretary who needs romance; and an asthmatic lump of sex from the botanist's home town. The only mildly refreshing character in the Capital...
...help much. Roddy Macdowall handles most of what can be done with the hero's role with buoyant competence, and Zero Mostel is often very funny, bellowing enough in his role as the jolly rascal to cover up some of the obviousness of his speeches. The rest of the cast is also adequately adept, but nothing about the production is bright enough to make the evening more than a nearly-made-it comedy...
Donskoy's way with children is as remarkable. Half his cast was children, and he treated them like adults with the result that there is little cute or faked about their performances. Though Alyosha Lyorsky acts with great charm, Young Gorky is the least convincing of the children. He is too often posed. Sometimes, when he should apparently be silently storing up observations as befits the future founder of Socialist Realism, he just stares. Similarly, S. Tikhonravov, as the anarchist lodger, falls victim to the Soviet preferences for gallant poses...