COWARD PLAY FAILS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 124, 11 May 1935, Page 14

COWARD PLAY FAILS

Closing in New York

The most recent Broadway bombshell is the closing of Noel Coward’s “Point, Veilaine,” featuring the Lunts, Osgood Perkins, and Louis Hayward, rffter 55 performances, says a New York message. This is one of the shortest runs for a Coward play on Broadway. The failure of “Point Verlaine” is a big blow to Broadway. A new play by Noel Coward is quite an event these days, and when the glamorous Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt are also mixed in the deal the occasion becomes doubly important. For some time the Lunts have been considered New York’s No. 1 drawing card, and are perhaps the only American players who can attract an audience regardless of the play. Now it seems the Lunts are off the gold standard! Apart from the vivid sets of G. E. Calthrop, Mr. Coward's torrid tale of sin in the tropics is bereft of all beauty. His dialogue is scorched with profanity and protracted with a savage bestiality that London would never permit. For comedy relief Mr. Coward has the hotel guests—a dexterous bunch, shrill, inquisitive, and a perfect outlet for the crisp Coward sarcasm.

The Lunts will now return to the Theajre Guild management for a Shakespearean revival, “The Taming of the Shrew.”