Word: kaufmans
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Adams and Dunster will start the rash of celebrations this weekend. The Gold-coasters are presenting George S. Kaufman's "The Man Who Came to Dinner" on Friday night, and Dunster will put forth an original three-act comedy...
Bravo! (by Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman; produced by Max Gordon) is about a group of distinguished Middle European refugees who share a shabby Manhattan brownstone. An archduchess turned dressmaker, a Habsburg turned salesman, a jurist peddling candy, a ballet dancer spewing venom, a famous playwright and actress (Oscar Homolka & Lili Darvas) on their uppers-they are bitter and sweet, grumbling and gallant, some taking misfortune in their stride, some wearing Budapest on their sleeve. In time most of them find their mate or their metier; while those whom the immigration authorities threaten with tragedy are saved by a phone...
Bravo! would seem like apt material for a neat Ferber & Kaufman blend of oil & vinegar. The play does have touches of warmth and wit, but most of it is a purely mechanical sponging of the emotions, or a frantic clutching at comic and dramatic straws. The characters are too often mere plushy stage furniture, exploited rather than explored. Only Refugee Actress Darvas (wife of famed Hungarian Playwright Ferenc Molnar) possesses real rather than synthetic dignity and charm...
...Light Up The Sky" can not compare with "The Man Who Came To Dinner," on which play Hart collaborated with the great comic genius, George S. Kaufman. But the new play is like the earlier masterpiece in that both shows hit their strides when they insult people. In "Light Up The Sky," directed by Hart himself, the insults come crisp and clean and funny. If Hart can now grease up the serious portions of the show, Broadway's big brass will be in for vigorous punishment for several months to come...
...EDWARD KAUFMAN...