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by Robert Poll okImported Establishment does well hereThe Establishment is not only the name for the powers that are supposed to run Great Britain, it also describes a Soho nightclub dedicated to the destruction of those powers by satire. Founded by Peter Cook, of “Beyond the Fringe,* the ca-bare j draws its patronage from 8,000 club members, because if the Establishment weren’t a club, the Lord Chamberlain would close it quicker than you could say Harold Macml .an.The young actors from Greek street have now changed places with their opposite numbers at Second City, and are to be seen and heard every night but Monday in a very savage, very funny, quite irreverent and-often exceedingly bawdy revue.They take a wicked pleasure in attacking all hallowed institutions. Their talents as actors and singers are about on a par with those of our good friends at Second City, but their playing is generally sharper and better rehearsed, and they seem considerably more disillusioned with everything than their Americancounterparts.The strong medicine on Wells st. is administered by three men and two gals. John Bird, a gifted leprechaun, and John Fortune, a relaxed beanpole with a frightful English hair-cut, carry the bulk of the comedy and they are young and wonderful. The quintet takes after church and state, bi|hops and English queens, cabinet ministers, industrialists, advertising men, fatuous Labor M.P.'s and their more fatuous wives. Every once in a while a pretty brunette sits under the spotlight to sing a Brechtian song, and hilarious use is made of a small movie screento augment action and dialogue on the stage.Highly recommended, if you can take it, to everybody from beatniks to charter members of the American Establishment. But not for the little ones.* * *The opening of the symphony season came as something of an anticlimax after all the excitement of the rescue. The orchestra played well for the now venerable Leopold Stokowski, but the program, mostly Beethoven's second and the truncated “Ilia Mourometz* of Giiere, elicited only regulation applause.Maybe there are still too many unanswered questions in the air. Will the mayor's arbitration panel pour more oil on the troubled waters? Will the mayor’s committee function well and promptly to raise the necessary monie for the extra weeks of the three year contract? Will the orchestral association help out in this task instead of sitting on its endowment?The heroes of the hour, that opening night, were Mayor Daley and the players committee of the orchestra, not Mr. Petrillo or the trustees.Until the present contract was signed Mr. Pe-ixillo displayed an extraordinary elusiveness, and the trustees seemed to show a grim determination to let somebody else do the job. The mayor had the patience and determination to work things out, and the players committee risked its neck to help him.• * *The remark-of-the-week prize goes to Mrs.George Far well III. Commenting on the cancellation of the annual December ball at the Casino club in the society columns, she was quoted as fellows: “Sounds as if a war is going to break out, doesn't it?fOOM
Newspaper Details
Hyde Park Herald
Hyde Park, Illinois, US
Wed, Oct 17, 1962
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Loyola U.
IL, USA 30 Mar 2020
Other Publications Near Hyde Park, Illinois
Hyde Park Herald
