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Robert PoliakI ' m flf ; M jv* jdg% £ * *^4%€Feiffer Revue Makes Flat DeoO? At Second City’s Playwrights TheaterPOLLAKNot content with the kudos of Second City, the talented kids up on North Wells St. have open a cabaret-theater one door north, andwill shortly launch a beer garden north of that, which will complete the Second City complex for the time being. The handsome new theater seats about a hundred at tables and the orchestra slants up from the stage so that everybody can see what goes on.Unfortunately what went on at the premiere of Playwrights at Second City, the name for the new venture, shouldn't have happened to an Airdale.The unveiling of Jules Feiffer’s Hie Explainers, a satirical revue, for the first time anywhere, was received with audible yawns by this department which flew the attractive new coop at the end of Act II, the second of three acts all as flat as the state of Nebraska. Mr. Feiffer, the Greenwich Village Daumier, is a cartoonist of considerable stature with a keen eye for the foibles of the white-collar Bohemians. His vertical strips explore bitterly the prevalent weakness of men, women and animals, and his gifts have brought him national syndication and consideration fame.But Paul Sills, the producer at Second City, and Mr. Feiffer have done little more in “The Explainers* than to transfer the Feiffer strips from the newspaper page to the revue platform, making each one a blackout. All of this is accompanied from time to time by some pretentious background music from piano and drums on a platform above the stage and, at least through Act II, there wasn't a tune in the carload. As the evening wears on the audience wears out.Being at heart a kindly old gentleman, Ihave nothing but sympathy and enthusiasm for the vibrating talents of the Second City ensemble. Their new theater is a little gem and the paneled bar underneath it invites the lush in search of a double sarsaparilla. The facade, laboriously reconstructed from part of the front of the old Garrick Theater building heartily welcomes the visitor in search of entertainment. The soon-to-be-opened beer garden next door shoujd prove to be a pleasant oasis in the second city.The renaissance of the revue in boites, stages-in-the round, dark cellars and mina-ture night clubs is an encouraging phenomenon, but the American revue harks back to pieces like The Little Show'” and the immortal The Band Wagon,” the latter with Fred and Adele Astaire, Frank Morgan, Tilly Losch, Helen Broderick and Phil Loeb. One remembers At Home Abroad” with Bea Lillie, Tonight at 8:40 with Ray Bolger and BertLahr, “Lend An Ear,” Leonard Sillman’s “New Faces, and one For the Money with Keenan Wynn, Gene Kelly and Brenda Forbes. Boy, those were the days. These ancient samples of the revue had their share of ironical comedy and mordant satire, but they also had beautiful girls, wonderful tunes, lovely stage pictures and top-notch dancing.Nobody expects the SecondCity gang to produce the counterparts of Clifton Webb, Libby Holman and Fred Allen on stage. Nobody expects a rising young group to employ the likes of George S. Kaufman, Howard Dietz or Arthur Schwartz for sketches, lyrics and music. Nevertheless one can expect some pace and variety, funny and sentimental songs, and intriguing dance or two, not an interminable parade of living cartoons, even Feiffer cartoons. The choice of The Explainers” for an opener is hard to explain.
Newspaper Details
Hyde Park Herald
Hyde Park, Illinois, US
Wed, May 17, 1961
Page 28
Full Page
Clipped by
Loyola U.
IL, USA 30 Mar 2020
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Hyde Park Herald
