CHEMIN DE FER
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| John Glover, Ralph Drischoll, Curt Karibalis, John McMartin, Peter Friedman, Charlotte Moore. |
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previously unpublished series came to be and what its relationship is to my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.
 |
| David Dukes, Rachel Roberts. |
CHEMIN DE FER [Comedy/French/Marriage/Sex]
A: Georges Feydeau; AD: Suzanne Grossman and Paxton Whitehead; D: Stephen
Porter; S: Edward Burbridge; C: Nancy Potts; L: Ken Billington; M: Bernard
Segall; P: New Phoenix Repertory Company; T: Ethel Barrymore Theatre;
11/26/73-2/16/74 (42)
A masterfully
staged production of a Feydeau sex farce never before seen in New York though
written early in the 20th century. Typical of other works by the famous French
farce writer in its mathematically precise mechanical plot devices, with mixups
and misunderstandings compounded one upon the other, it was not, however,
viewed as a masterpiece of the genre. It was staged by the New Phoenix in repertory
with Durrenmatt’s The Visit.
Its complex plot,
dealing with adulterous and non-adulterous love affairs among turn-of-the-century
Parisians has a healthy share of the usual oddball characters, including a
central figure named Fedot (John McMartin) whom everyone keeps mistaking for
the man who wrote the play.
 |
| John McMartin, George Ede. |
The large cast
included such theatre stalwarts as Richard Venture, Rachel Roberts, George Ede,
David Dukes, Bill Moor, Peter Friedman, John Glover, and Charlotte Moore. The
latter, who played Sophie, garnered a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress
in a Play. (She later became artistic director of the Irish Repertory Theatre.) Porter was nominated for Best Director of a Play.
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
