The Theater: The Citronella Circuit

The muggy season was setting in for Broadway’s 18 surviving shows, and the U.S. theater got ready again last week to take to the country. By month’s end, in such unlikely pastures as Fish Creek, Wis. and Woods Hole, Mass., more than 200 summer playhouses will sprout across the land. By Labor Day, they should yield a multimillion-dollar harvest—and more acting jobs than three Manhattan seasons.

Would-be and has-been players will vie with Broadway regulars for a place in the summer sun. But, being more commercial than quaint, many a summer playhouse will depend more than ever on big names to draw vacationing theatergoers. Some stars will tour singly, others with supporting players or a whole “package” show—the growing bugaboo of resident troupes.

Hardy Perennials. Already busy, milking her Broadway hit and getting the season’s top salary ($5,000 a week), is Tallulah Bankhead in Private Lives. Summer Veteran Edward Everett Horton, who has played Springtime for Henry perennially (at a profit of about $1,000,000), will give the old comedy a rest in favor of Present Laughter. Some of the other country hands: Helen Hayes (in a tryout of William McCleery’s Good Housekeeping), Paul Lukas, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Eva Le Gallienne, Basil Rathbone, Mady Christians, Ann Harding, Elisabeth Bergner, Joan Blondell, Bert Lahr, Kay Francis.

As usual, the circuit will thrive on revivals: The Heiress (a good bet for one of the summer’s most frequently offered shows), Edward, My Son, Light Up the Sky, The Winslow Boy. The summer theaters will also get opera: Broadway’s successful The Telephone and The Medium, offered by a company starring Marie Powers. Other likely favorites: Blithe Spirit, John Loves Mary, 0 Mistress Mine.

Proceed wifh Caution. Once celebrated as a playwrights’ laboratory (the Provincetown, Mass. Players launched Eugene O’Neill), today’s summer theater is in no mood to gamble on experiments. Few of its impresarios will try out more than one play this season, and then with a sharp eye on Broadway-in-the-fall. Last year, out of 81 tryouts in 54 playhouses, three plays actually got to Manhattan and one (The Silver Whistle) managed to stick.

While the summer producers laid big plans, they thought that caution would be a good idea—for the other fellow. They feared that the slumping box office on Broadway and in the cinemansions would spread to the citronella circuit. Besides, costs were up about 5% after last year’s sharp rise of 30%, and admission prices were as high as they could safely go.

Smaller operators fretted about new rules by Actors’ Equity, which will hold contracts with about 130 of the theaters. At least 70% of each cast must now belong to Equity, and thus qualify for its $50 minimum summer salary.