CONDUCT UNBECOMING
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| Elizabeth Shepherd, Erik Howell, Donald Pickering, Paul Jones. |
"In Lieu of Reviews"
Reviews of live theatre being impossible during these days of the pandemic, THEATRE'S LEITER SIDE
is pleased to provide instead accounts of previous theatre
seasons--encompassing the years 1970-1975-for theatre-hungry readers. If you'd
like to know the background on how this previously unpublished series came to
be and what its relationship is 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 entries
beginning with the letter “A.” See the list at the end of the current entry.
 |
| Michael Barrington, Paul Jones, Donald Pickering. |
CONDUCT UNBECOMING [Drama/India/Law/Mystery/Period/Trial] A: Barry England;
D: Val May; S/C/L: Finlay James; P: Donald Albery and Roger L. Stevens; T:
Ethel Barrymore Theatre; 10/12/70-2/14/71 (144)
A British
melodrama about a red-coated, Kiplingesque regiment in late 19th-century India
that was flogged for being terribly old-fashioned (Martin Gottfried called it “a
theatrical wax museum”) and for utilizing mechanical characters instead of
human beings. Still, a decent number of
reviewers found it gripping, “well-wrought” (Harold Clurman), and entertaining.
First produced
by the Bristol Old Vic, and later a West End hit, Conduct Unbecoming played on Broadway with four of its original
actors. Its tale concerns a kangaroo court martial held by an Indian Army
regiment when one of their numbers, Second Lt. Edward Millington (Jeremy Clyde), a
disaffected young officer, is unjustly suspected of having compromised the
regimental honor by assaulting an officer’s attractive widow, Mrs. Marjorie
Hasseltine (Elizabeth Shepherd). The deed involved a sword thrust to her rear end, in the
manner of the company sport of pig-sticking.
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| Richard Lupino, Paul Harding, Paul Jones. |
His defense is
placed in the hands of another young officer, Second Lt. Arthur Drake (Paul
Jones), whose sense of fair play demands that he get to the bottom of the case
rather than simply help his superiors convict the defendant.
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| Elizabeth Shepherd, Jeremy Clyde, Paul Jones. |
Clive Barnes
summed up the positive response by claiming Conduct
Unbecoming to be “quite a wonderful example of this genre. It is a
whodunit, a why-he-did-it and a where-it-was-done of . . . unusual interest and
quality.” Donald Pickering, who played Capt. Rupert Harper, received a Tony
nomination for Best Feature Actor in a Play. Indian-born actress Madhur Jaffrey had a supporting role.
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
Blasts and Bravos: An Evening with H,L.
Mencken
Blood
Bluebeard
Blue Boys
Bob and Ray—The Two and Only
Boesman and Lena
The Boy Who Came to Leave
Bread
A Breeze from the Gulf
Brief Lives
Brother Gorski
Brothers
Bullshot Crummond
Bunraku
The Burnt Flower Bed
Butley
Button, Button
Buy Bonds, Buster
The Cage
Camille
Candide (1)
Candide (2)
The Candyapple
Captain Brassbound’s Conversion
The Caretaker
La Carpa de los Raquichis
The Carpenters
The Castro Complex
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
The Changing Room
Charles Abbott and Son
Charley’s Aunt
Charlie Was Here and Now He’s Gone
Chemin de Fer
The Cherry Orchard
The Chickencoop Chinaman
The Children
Children! Children!
Children in the Rain
Children of the Wind
The Children’s Mass
A Chorus Line
The Chronicle of Henry VI: Part 1, Part
II,
The Circle
Clarence Darrow
Cold Feet
Conditions of Agreement