Old Play in Manhattan

The Show-Off (by George Kelly; produced by David Heilweil & Derrick Lynn-Thomas) revives on Broadway an old favorite of the '20s, while familiarizing Broadway with a new favorite of the provinces--theater-in-the-round. Both the play and the production have drawbacks, but both come off pleasantly enough. Performed on an arena-like stage with the audience at its elbow and on all four sides, Broadway's theater-in-the-round at times resembles theater-in-the-rough. But the illusion of life is quite as strong as with orthodox staging; what is diminished is the illusion of theater.

Playwright Kelly's famous portrait of a braggart is still an amusing one. If The Show-Off seems protracted now, it seemed already diluted in 1924, for in an earlier and more brilliant form it was a vaudeville sketch. But its best bits are among the funniest of all tilting at windbags. The strutting $32.50-a-week clerk, who is neither cowed by the law he flouts nor squelched by the mother-in-law he infuriates, is most alive when most farcical. Lee Tracy plays him with noisy but un-brutal gusto, making him far more ham than horror.

As satire on lower-middle-class family life, The Show-Off is still reasonably entertaining, even though worn and familiar. There is a decided period flavor to The Show-Off; yet the personal flavor of George Kelly is anything but faint.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.