Theatre
Tan PAJAMA GAME. By George Abbott and Richard 'Bissell. (Coliseum.)----The WHOLE TRUTH. By Philip Mackie. (Aldwych.)— SMALL HOTEL. By Rex Frost. (St. Martin's.) THAT a musical comedy can be based on the story. of a strike in a pyjama factory only goes to show how very different the class structure of America is from bur own. Here we are so petrified in the consciousness of our particular position in society that, on the stage, the work- ing class can only be presented as comic or (more rarely) as tragic. What they are not is ordinary people like you and me, and the idea of putting them into musical comedy alongside the toffs, the idea of a trade-union jeune premiere in love with the works super- intendent would, I imagine, be repugnant to the theatre-going masses who come up on Southern Electirie from Bootland and get a vicarious kick out of the antics of the gold- laced Ruritanians who traditionally occupy the English stage. What The Pajama Game gains from its real-life background is a vigorous popular tang. The works' outing scene backed by some lively tunes gave off an atmosphere of innocent energy and enjoyment far removed from the rather fetid overtones of Pal Joey, and the seduction scene was for once perfectly naturally done.
Of course, the realism is not carried all the way. The moral of the musical (if it can be called that) seems to be a boost for the new American way of life with capital and labour having their little rows, but none the less all pulling together for bigger and better pyjamas. The question of power never enters into it, but it is pretty clearly vested in the managers. What we have here is the musical of the managerial revolution. Still, this is not insisted on and, if the first scene does suggest a social conscience film of the Thirties turned inside out, there is no necessity to wonder too much whether everything is for the best in the best of all possible mixed economies. The Pajama Game is excellent entertainment. Joy Nichols and Edmund Hockridge are very good as girl grievance committee and works superinten- dent, while Max Wall and Elizabeth Seal supply the comic relief. The numbers— especially 'Steam Heat'—have zip and some- times wit. The production is fast, the chorus girls are shapely. This is a musical that de- serves to run for a long time.
*
At the Aldwych there is a thriller of the well- known 'innocent-party-gets-taken-up-by-police' variety. This particular one is given pace by the ingenuity of the first two acts, but falls off badly in the third, where what is coming can be spotted a mile away. As the innocent not likely to be at large for long, Ernest Clark makes a bold showing, while Sarah Lawson remains loyal and connubial throughout. Leslie Phillips is an attractive villain and a great deal too clever for Arnold Bell's policeman. This was not a bad evening out.
*
Gordon Harker and Marjorie Fielding figure in a play about the horrors of the English hotel, which is tolerable as long as they are on the stage (which they mostly are), but sags when they leave it. Mr. Harker represents the decrepit waiter class, frustrating by sheer cun- ning attempts to replace him by an efficiency expert, while Miss Fielding is well cast as one of the formidable old dames that all too fre- quently make England what it is. After seeing this play nobody will be able to drink their Brown Windsor soup with quite the same abandon again.
ANTHONY HARTLEY
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