CROWN MATRIMONIAL
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| Eileen Herlie, George Grizzard. |
"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like to know the background on how this previously unpublished series came to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.
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| Eileen Herlie, George Grizzard, Enid Rodgers, Eleanor Phelps. |
CROWN
MATRIMONIAL [Drama/Biographical/British/Family/Politics]
A: Royce Ryton; D: Peter Dews; S/C: Finlay James; L: Neil Peter Jampolis; P:
Lester Osterman Productions i/a/w Michael Codron; T: Helen Hayes Theatre; 10/2/73-12/9/73
(79)
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| Patrick Horgan, Eileen Herlie. |
Royce Ryton’s superficial dramatization of the
travails of the British royal family when faced by the 42-year-old King Edward
VIII’s (George Grizzard) decision to marry the twice-divorced American, Mrs.
Wallis Simpson, even though it meant abdication, was given a smoothly
competent, polished production. The play itself, a London success, did not
light firecrackers in the New York press.
Clive Barnes, himself British, called it “a strongly
conceived historical drama” with a promise for “thrilling, domestic tragedy,”
that went unfulfilled when the author opted to write witty dialogue at the expense
of firm dramatic structure. To John Simon, this was little more than “royal
soap opera . . . play writing of the hoariest, weariest sort, full of set
pieces and grand entrances.” Like several others, he could not accept a serious
treatment of the famous story that failed entirely to introduce the female love
interest.
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| Eileen Herlie, George Grizzard, Ruth Hunt, Patrick Horgan. |
Ryton’s drama chose to concentrate on the clash
between Queen Mary (Eileen Herlie), Edward’s mother, and her impassioned son, a
decision that robbed the work of its potential for deeper significance. It was
suggested that as Mrs. Simpson was still alive, her possible objections were
likely behind the approach.
Eileen Herlie got fine reviews for her Queen Mary,
as did George Grizzard for his Edward. Simon, though, thought the American
actor “miscast” as a British royal, claiming “he is not wispy and, above all,
not everyday enough.” Patrick Horgan’s stammering Bertie, soon to be King
George VI, was excellent, as was Paddy Croft’s Princess Mary in this otherwise
well-designed, efficient staging. Finlay James’s costumes earned him a Tony
nomination.
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
Coney Island Cycle
The Constant Wife
The Contractor
The Contrast
The Constant Wife
The Country Girl
Crazy Now
The Creation of the
World and Other Business
Creeps