Word: giraudoux
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Along Broadway last week, first-nighters twice crowded in excitedly for the openings of new plays: Jean Giraudoux's Ondine and Elmer Rice's The Winner (see THEATER). Among the celebrity-packed audience at each opening were seven men whose arrivals in the theater were meticulously noted by people on both sides of the curtain. The seven: New York's big daily newspaper critics, who wield a power in their field that few newsmen can match. As soon as the final cur tain touched the stage, four of them hurried for the exits and made for their...
Ondine (adapted by Maurice Valency from the French of Jean Giraudoux) brings Audrey Hepburn again to Broadway-or rather, Audrey Hepburn brings Ondine there, as representing her choice from among many scripts. She will almost certainly become the acting sensation of the season, for in Ondine, she has found a part she can act out ravishingly, whether as water sprite or woman. But the part is far more beguiling than the whole. Despite its medieval stage color, its moments of pure enchantment, its other moments of pure Giraudoux, Ondine never quite gets off the ground-or out of the water...
...fairy story dramatized by Jean Giraudoux and adapted by Maurice Valency, Ondine is a prime and welcome example of the variety possible on the stage. Unlike T.S. Eliot, Giraudoux does not couch his parable in obscurity, but is quite willing to spell out the point of the play: that man must accept and respect human limitations. When exposed to superhuman love and devotion-like that of the water sprite ondine-even a knight errant finds that his shining armor becomes rusty. He is neither worthy nor capable of returning complete love. Having only this simple "message" to comprehend, the playgoer...
Died. Louis Jouvet, 63, famed French actor, director, producer and manager of Paris' Athénée Theatre; of a heart attack; in Paris. A specialist in character roles from Molière to Giraudoux, he was best known to Americans through his films (Lady Paname, Volpone) until he came to Manhattan last March, when, despite the language barrier, he delighted audiences with his deft portrayal of giggling, grimacing Arnolphe, hero of Molière's L'Ecole des Femmes...
...dashing French lieutenant assigned to teach trench warfare to ROTC students, stayed on to make a career of teaching literature. With time out only to serve as a director in France's commissariat of information early in World War II ("You're pure," said Commissioner Jean Giraudoux, who appointed him. "You don't know anybody"), "Le Beau André" has remained at Harvard ever since-an elegantly tailored, youthful-looking six-footer who has never been known to deviate from his own advice: "You've got to give yourself completely when teaching-in class...