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| Black Light Theatre of Prague. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
For background on how this previously
unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and
1975—came to be and its relationship to my three The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage volumes (covering every New
York play, musical, revue, and revival between 1920 and 1950), please check the
prefaces to any of the earlier entries beginning with the letter “A.” See the
list at the end of the current entry.
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| Black Light Theatre of Prague |
BLACK LIGHT THEATRE OF
PRAGUE [Musical Revue/Czechoslovakian/Foreign
Language] B: Jiri Srnec and Frantisek Kratochvil; M: Jiri Srnec; S: Jiri Srnec
and Frantisek Kratochvil; P: Pacific World Artists, Inc. i/a/w City Center of
Music and Drama; T; City Center; 9/27/71-10/3/71 (10)
A two-part “musical novelty” from a 10-year-old central European
country specializing in mime and magical techniques in which luminescent
effects were painted on black backgrounds and costumes and made to seem as if
they are floating in the air. Something similar would be done in the 21st
century with computerized costumes. The program described the show as “the
musically organized movement of objects in combination with live action on the
stage.”
Following a first part in which a series of conventional
sketches called “Introduction,” “Washerwoman,” “Horse,” “Dialogue,” and “Ghosts,”
a lengthier piece called “Fair of Hands” was given. This symbolic work, seen by
Douglas Watt as suggesting a critical reaction to totalitarianism, had to do
with a villainous fairground barker and his dwarf assistant who, by conning
people into putting a mysterious green glove on their hands, turns them into
puppets under the barker’s control. When a single heroic individual resists,
the barker’s plans are foiled.
The evening was too insubstantial to hold attention throughout,
wrote Watts, and Martin Gottfried scorned the show as a “silly entertainment”
for tourists.
Previous entries:
Abelard and
Heloise
Absurd Person
Singular
AC/DC
“Acrobats”
and “Line”
The Advertisement/
All My Sons
All Over
All Over Town
All the Girls Came
Out to Play
Alpha Beta
L’Amante Anglais
Ambassador
American Gothics
Amphitryon
And Miss Reardon
Drinks a Little
And They Put
Handcuffs on the Flowers
And Whose Little
Boy Are You?
Anna K.
Anne of Green
Gables
Antigone
Antiques
Any Resemblance to Persons Living or Dead
Applause
Ari
As You Like It
Augusta
The
Au Pair Man
Baba Goya [Nourish the Beast]
The Ballad of Johnny Pot
Barbary Shore
The Bar that Never Closes
The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel
The Beauty Part
The Beggar’s Opera
Behold! Cometh the Vanderkellens
Be Kind to People Week
Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill
Bette Midler’s Clams on a Half-Shell
Revue
Black Girl