Word: scripting
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...slave girls paraded "for sale or for rent," and a number of jokes like, "Call me in the harem; I'll be lying down there," Kismet is often indistinguishable from Harem Nights at the Old Howard. Further debits are abominable lyrics ("We'll coo adicu without undue ado"), a script short on humor of any kind, and except for a rather striking bridal procession, elementary and often drab settings by Lemuel Ayers...
...enjoyable indeed. In Otis Skinner's old role of the resourceful beggar who marries off his daughter to the Caliph, Drake is even more personable than he was in Kiss Mc Kate. Drake is onstage almost continuously, and his jaunty gusto as he revels in the foolishness of the script sets the tone and pace of the whole production. With a sturdy baritone and superb diction, Drake gives his songs far better treatment than they deserve, projecting all too clearly some atrocities in the lyrics, but making a number like "Gesticulate" seem quite imaginative...
Quite aware of the potential of the locale and its personalities, Swanson has chosen a piece of ironical whimsey for his script. A wiry youth with the agility of a Douglas Fairbanks and the garb of a Broadway bopster steals a 40 pound donation from the coffers of the local church. After a Keystone cops chase he hides the money under a pumpkin soon to be found by a woman who needs cash urgently to feed her hungry children. When the thief shrewdly steals the money back, the whole village of Alexandra pursues him until he seeks out a plausible...
Many a teacher secretly rebels, "bootlegs" reading early in the first grade (which is not yet considered ready to begin it) and script writing in the second grade simply because she feels it is her duty to the children. Others "bootleg" hard, oldfashioned, rigid authoritarianism and rule their charges with threats and fear. A great majority, however, conscientiously try to bring understanding and sympathy to their classrooms...
Since the plot idea is, among other things, remarkably wholesome, Taylor felt called upon to spice it for Broadway. The ugly head of sex does not rear, it is dragged in by the playwright with gusto. Obvious burlesque material does not buoy a sinking script, however, it merely brings the level down a little further...