FULL THEATRES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 79, 15 March 1934, Page 8

FULL THEATRES

IN THE UNITED STATES Government Eyes Broadway THE AUTUMN SEASON If the prosperity of the theatre is ui accurate guide to general conditions, the depression u certainly ending in the United States. The new autumn season in the Now York theatre it studded with outstanding successes, says the “Manchester Guardian.'’ Play after play has been presented, only to sell all scats immediately and for weekt ahead. In the past this would have meant a golden harvest for the ticket speculators, but to-day the Federal Government is sternly watching Broadway. The theatres have an N.R.A. code which provides, remarkable to relate, that brokers may not advance their charges by more than 75 cents (three shillings.) and that a certain per centago of scats must actually be en sale at the theatre itself. Of these new plays not many are of serious literary importance. First among the few exceptions is perhaps Maxwell Anderson’s drama in blank verse “Mary of Scotland,” a not unworthy successor to liis “ElizabHh the Queen.” Eugene O’Neill is represent ed by a play quite unlike hie customary sternly gloomy mood, “Oh, Wilder ness,” a nostalgic comedy of troubled youth a quarter of a century ago. The other successes nre chiefly in the field of uproarious comedy, most of them with music. THE CINEMA. The sudden renaissance in the theatre has been paralleled In the field of the cinema. The greatest success for several years is a motion picture version of Louisa M. Alcott’e childhood classic. Tremendous crowds are flock Ing everywhere to see this faithful translation (for which Kenneth Mac gowan is chiefly responsible) of a book of family life in New England over 60 years ago. Much attention has also been given to the English film “The Private Life of Henry VIII,’’ with Charles Laughton. Another motion picture success which has now become something of a social phenomenon is that of “The Three Little Pigs,” a Silly Symphony in eolour, from the studios of Walt Disney. Largely because of the charming nursery song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf! ” this short film, which lasts but a few minutes on the screen, has become enormously popular. Nearly every cinema in the country has shown it; every butcher’s boy in the street is whistling his defiance to the wolf, and no dinner table conversation is complete without somebody trying to explain the film’s success in terms of the national psychology. FICTION AND ART. In the field of the novel there has been no autumn success to parallel the achievements in the theatre. Hervey Allen’s huge 1200-page book “Anthony Adverse” is still the novel which is perhaps being read most widely. Ernest. Hemingway, Dorothy Parker,' George Milburn, and Erskine Caldwell, four of the most important American authors of the present time, are all represented on the autumn lists with new collections of short stories which have been respectfully but not enthusiastically received. No important new painter has appeared in the United States for some time, and the autumn season in art has thus far little to record. Perhaps the exhibition to attract most attention is that of Edward Hopper at the Museum of Modern Art. Hopper is a “satirical realist,” whose paintings have been compared to the novels of Sinclair Lewis, The fact that his show has been given at the Museum of Modern Art has occasioned some controversy, being criticised adversely by those who feel that the museum should show only works which are technically “modern-istic”—-an interpretation of function which the directors of the museum repudiate. OPERA AT “POPULAR PRICES.” In the field of music the most striking event of the past few months is that for the first time in memory grand opera at really “popular prices” is a success in New York. While the heav-ily-subsidised Metropolitan Opera has greatly curtailed its season and is saving money in every possible way, an unsubsidised opera company has been playing for several months to overflowing houses at the old Hippodrome, a vast barn of a theatre formerly given over to extravaganzas and circus spectacles. The best seats at the Hippodrome are only one dollar (4s), and larger numbers are only 50 cents. While the cast contains no outstanding famous names, the productions are thoroughly competent, and the success of the venture seems to answer the often-asked question w*.ether the common people of New York really want grand opera sufficiently to make it a profitable venture. The reply obviously is that they do, at prices which they can afford.