THE CRUCIBLE
 |
| Philip Bosco, Robert Foxworth, and company. |
"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like to know the background on how this previously unpublished series came to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.
 |
| Theresa Merritt, Philip Bosco. |
THE
CRUCIBLE [Dramatic
Revival] A: Arthur Miller; D: John Berry; S/L: Jo Mielziner; C: Carrie F.
Robbins; P: Repertory Theatre of Lincoln Center; T: Vivian Beaumont Theatre;
4/27/72-6/3/72 (44)
Arthur Miller’s The
Crucible, here given its third New York revival since its original 1953
production, nearly 20 years earlier, stood forth as the masterwork of the great
dramatist. It was also provided with one of the finest productions given during
the first decade of the Vivian Beaumont Theatre’s life. Earlier revivals had
been at Off Broadway’s Martinique Theatre in 1958, which ran for 633 performances,
and Broadway’s Belasco Theatre in 1964, which had only 32.
 |
| Martha Henry, Robert Fosworth. |
The play, an examination of hysteria, conscience,
guilt, and courage set in 1692 Salem, had outlived its immediate application as
a response to the 1950s’ communist witch hunt run by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. It
emerged as a work of universal and timeless relevance—“a true classic, powerful
and heroic,” according to Martin Gottfried. Harold Clurman called it “a work of
impressive dramatic and moral strength,” and John Simon observed that it was “flawed
but forceful, anachronistic and somewhat repetitious, but [an] essentially
well-constructed” drama that “holds the stage tooth and nail.”
There were reservations about Miller’s linguistic insufficiency,”
as Simon put it, but counter-arguments describing the language as “at once
formal and pristine, stalwart as an oak,” in Clurman’s words, also were heard.
 |
| Martha Henry, Robert Foxworth, Stephen Elliott. |
Nearly every critic lauded John Berry’s production
as Lincoln Center’s finest yet, with bravos flung at several outstanding
actors, among them Pamela Payton-Wright as Abigail, Robert Proctor (who
received a Theatre World Award) as John Proctor, Stephen Elliott as Danforth,
Philip Bosco as Rev. Hale, and Martha Henry as Elizabeth Proctor. Berry’s
staging was not flashy, but unified and to the point, described by Brendan Gill
as “sturdy, forthright and agreeably old-fashioned.”
The few derisive comments came from Stanley
Kauffmann, for whom the direction and acting were mediocre, while Douglas Watt
felt this “shoddy” melodrama was given an “overwrought” mounting.
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
