Word: mama
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...similarity between "The Happy Time" and a play called "I Remember Mama" is apparent not long after the first rise of the curtain. Both plays deal with the minor trials and tribulations of a happy-type family in which the children are experiencing their first taste of life and love. Both plays have their proper quota of eccentric uncles, indulgent fathers, and strong-willed mothers. Both plays have been based on successful and partly-auto-biographical books. I should be surprised if both books have not been honored with a condensation in "The Reader's Digest." As "I Remember Mama...
Robert Lewis, a former Hollywood bit-player and director of a musical entitled "Brigadoon," has done another one of his disturbing jobs of directing. What keeps "The Happy Time" from becoming a second "I Remember Mama"--a worthy goal--are Mr. Lewis' determined efforts at diverting even the touching scenes in a farcial direction. This gets howls from the audience and I should hope yelps from the Messrs. Fontaine and Taylor, if they give a damn about their joint creation...
...Business Sense. Moravia dwells on only five years of Adriana's life in mid-'30s Rome. Already luscious at 16, she lived in a depressing slum with her widowed, seamstress mother. Mama had no intention of letting her daughter get tied up with hard work or tied down to marriage with a man of her class. She got her a job as a model, made it clear that she didn't mind Adriana sleeping out "as long as they paid her." After a couple of non-professional affairs, streetwalking followed fast...
Aside from the plot situation, "The Guardsman" has very little wit, though the Brattle Players frequently make it seem so. With them for this show as a guest actress, is Viola Roache, who gives a sturdily humorous performance as the quasi-"Mama" to Miss Farrand. Other highlights of the evening are contributed by Jeanne Tufts as a theater usher, and by Eleanor MacLean as Liesl, the maid. Miss MacLean's name has been on the Brattle programs before, but always in the capacity of wardrobe mistress. If this is a promotion, it is certainly a just one, for her maid...
...life of the family is a happy one. Peter spends most of his evenings watching television and drinking beer, but complains "that was I don't ever get to bed." When occasionally he considers his $45 boots underpriced in comparison to New York maker's, Mama claims "We don't make a lot of money but we have a good life and lots of friends." Everything would be complete for Peter with a trip back to the Old Country. "I'd like to go. You buy the tickets, and I'll buy all the beer...