Word: gallicly
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Happy Time (by Samuel Taylor; based on Robert Fontaine's book; produced by Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II) wheels into position another of the aggressively picturesque families that enjoy great popularity on Broadway. The Bonnards, headed by jaunty, Gallic grandpere (Edgar Stehli), are French-Canadians living in Ottawa in the early 19205. There are grandpère's three sons-a "crazy violinist" (Claude Dauphin), a round-the-clock tosspot (Kurt Kasznar), and a round-the-town ladies' man (Richard Hart); his often disapproving Scottish-Presbyterian daughter-in-law (Leora Dana); and his grandson (Johnny Stewart...
...those rather too French concoctions that act as though Gallic were derived from gal, The Happy Time fetches its laughs from souvenir garters, stolen nighties, La Vie Parisienne, grandpa's amorous exertions that require medical aid, grandson's amorous speculations that require parental talks. Lest any of this seem unduly coarse, the characters are made wacky or lovable as well as lecherous, and the story is sprayed with period allusions and pidgin French...
Seldom really human but everywhere humane, The Enchanted shimmers with a fine Gallic playfulness. It improvises a quick, ingenious answer for everything, doubtless as a way of saying that there is no certain answer for anything, and that the nearest thing to release from care is a fantasy by Giraudoux. The obvious theater qualities which The Enchanted lacks are richly offset by the rare ones it has. It is rather a shame that the production has just the earthiness needed by the play, the play just the airiness needed by the production. Adapter Valency's version is good...