Women Bloody Women

By T.E. Kalem

LADIES AT THE ALAMO by PAULZINDEL

There are dragon ladies breathing fire on the stage of Broadway's Martin Beck Theater. Paul Zindel has conceived of a raw, strident all-woman power struggle for control of a regional theater called the "Alamo" in Texas City, Texas. The bitchy confrontations in his play make the feline spats in Clare Boothe Luce's The Women sound like the popping of ladyfingers.

The chief monster woman, Dede Cooper (Estelle Parsons), is a pioneer zealot of regional theater, and she has nursed the Alamo into its present quarters, a huge Gothic pile. Dede can squash mountains as though they were bugs, but she has a doughty foe in a widowed moneybags named Joanne Remington (Rosemary Murphy), who believes that when money talks, Dede should shut up. Joanne's plan is to install a codirector, Shirley Fuller (Jan Farrand), who will siphon off Dede's authority.

Operation Overkill sets in, but the play is weak in credibility and ramshackle in structure. Only the actresses stand out. Eileen Heckart is a thorough delight as Dede's pal Bella Gardner, a swaying lush more avidly at home in bedrooms than boardrooms. In the juiciest part, Estelle Parsons blows through the play like a typhoon.

Director Frank Perry commands everyone's best work. When the evening is over, one longs for the cozy serenity of Lear's blasted heath.

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