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| Paul Shyre. |
"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unpublished series—introducing all mainstream New York shows between 1970 and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.
BLASTS AND BRAVOS: AN EVENING WITH H.L. MENCKEN
[Drama/Biographical/Literature/Politics/Religion/Solo] A: Paul Shyre; SC: Works
of H.L. Mencken; DS: Eldon Elder; M: Robert Rines; P: Edgar Lansbury, Joseph
Beruh, and Torquay Company; T: Cherry Lane Theatre (OB); 1/16/75-2/23/75 (46)
Paul Shyre, a skilled adapter of the writings of famous men into
one-man biodramas, occasionally appeared in them himself, as he did here. The
work was stitched together from the published works—mainly three memoirs—of
outspoken American journalist H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), whose career included
his co-editorship with the critic George Jean Nathan of two highly influential
magazines, The Smart Set and American Mercury.
It roamed widely over
the many topics that Mencken’s columns touched on, from marriage to organized
religion to literature to women to beer to politics, with Mencken’s much loved
wit and skepticism retaining as much bounce as ever. The play was presented in
a set representing, in realistic detail, the writer’s Baltimore library in
1930, when he was 49.
Although most critics expressed less than fondness for the
genre, many came away with respect for Shyre’s accomplishment. His acting, in
which he gave a thoughtfully precise physical demonstration of the irascible
reporter—down to a suitably overblown paunch built with eight inches of padding—was
consistently effective in capturing the man’s personality. Dressed in a striped
shirt with red suspenders, and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, he moved about the
library freely, now reading from his writings, now seeming to make up the words
on the spot, now lighting a cigar, and now sipping beer or burgundy from a
stein or wine glass. His speech was modeled after actual recordings of Mencken’s
own voice.
Walter Kerr, who generally enjoyed the play, found that it
depended too much on verbal one-offs with insufficient analytical support. “When
Mr. Shyre does dip deeply enough into the available material to suggest thought
behind the verbal shenanigans—in speaking of the Scopes ‘monkey’ trial or
showing some sympathy for a rattled Valentino—the amplification, the getting
down to brass tacks, is welcome. More often, we must settle for a collection of
quick and easy adjectives.”
In sum, Kerr concluded, “A cavalier evening, then, but an
agreeable one nonetheless.”
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
Black Light Theatre of Prague
Black Picture Show
Black Sunlight
The Black Terror
Black Visions
Les Blancs