THE ROAD: Safe from Broadway

Broadway is an unhealthy place, in the opinion of Producer Manning Gurian, because of the fallout from all those theatrical A-bombs. Knowing the pain of Broadway radiation burns (in 1948 he brought Tennessee Williams’ Summer and Smoke into Manhattan after a triumphant three-week road tryout only to see Summer go up in smoke), he has devised a classically simple defense: get out of town. His invaluable asset: a wife named Julie Harris.

For years, Producer Gurian has been looking for what might be called a clean bomb—a low-radiation play that he could take on the road before Manhattan critics could blast it. Last week after having read more than 400 scripts, Actress Harris opened to warm reviews in Wilmington, Dela. in her husband’s production of The Warm Peninsula, an impish tale of a good little Milwaukee girl’s search for glamour in Miami. Before even getting near Broadway, Peninsula will live out of its trunks for a full year, is booked to play in 19 U.S. cities by May.

Producer Gurian, 45, rests his return to the boondocks—once teeming with such performers as Maude Adams and Edwin Booth—on a tripod of reasons: “It’s practical; it’s economical; and it’s romantic.” Some time next year, the Gurians will bring their play to the radioactive sidewalks of New York, but by then, they will be able to view critical reaction philosophically. “A moderately good show might flop in New York,” muses Manning, “but it might entertain the nation.”