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| Judith Erickson, Phyllis Worthington |
Seen in the summer of 1972 at the Lenox Arts Center in the
Berkshires, this revival of the 1947 Stein-Thompson opera about suffragette
Susan B. Anthony (Judith Erickson, alternating with Phyllis Worthington) came to New York several months later in the guise of an Off-Broadway
musical, its unusual venue being the Guggenheim Museum.
Stein’s dense and convoluted style made the text hard to
penetrate, yet there was admiration for her intelligence and craft. Thompson’s
avant-garde music was not considered especially rewarding, despite the work’s
being “one of the few durable products in American musical history,” according
to Clive Barnes. He also admitted that it sounded dated.
Exquisitely set against Oliver Smith’s screens, and costumed
in brown, gold, and white by Patricia Zipprodt, the show looked lovely. It was
well sung and directed (overall “artistic direction” was credited to the
composer himself), but it proved too special in appeal and closed early.
