Sunday, September 20, 2020

352. MISALLIANCE. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

 


Hugh Franklin, Ruth Warrick.

MISALLIANCE [Dramatic Revival] A: George Bernard Shaw; D: Gene Feist; S: Holmes Easley; C: Mimi Maxmen; L: Robert Murphy; P: Roundabout Repertory Company; T: Roundabout Theatre (OB); 3/28/72-4/30/72 (40)

Tom V.V. Tammi, Philip Campanella, Christine Sumerfield.

Cramped into the tiny Roundabout space in the basement of a Chelsea supermarket, Shaw’s comedy was unable to spread its wings and fly. The acting was merely ordinary—“a good amateur try,” said Walter Kerr. Despite its obvious lack of comedic values, Mel Gussow, for one, thought this Misalliance mustered enough interest to pass as a “respectful, uncluttered production,” and noted “Partisans of Shaw should be interested.”

The cast, many of them Roundabout regulars, included Tom V.V. Tammi as Joey Percival, Hugh Franklin as John Tarleton, Elizabeth Owen as Lina Szczepanowska, Philip Campanella as Gunner, Lou Trapani as Bentley Summerhays, Ruth Warrick as Mrs. John Tarleton, Christine Sumerfield as Hypatia Tarleton, and Fred Stuthman as Lord Summerhays.