"Street Scene" Loses In Drama Guild Offering
by Stanley Meisler
Commentary by Stanley Meisler
February 11, 1954
February 1954
Middletown, Ohio
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The stuff of Elmer Rice's 1929 Pulitzer Prize winning "Street Scene," diluted with music, stilted acting and careless staging moved into Cincinnati’s Cox Theater last night. The production, in the form of Kurt Weil's 1947 opera, was offered by the Cincinnati Music-Drama Guild, a collection of amateurs and less than top grade professionals. Since the group chose a major downtown house for their performance and charged accordingly, their work must be compared with the talents of others who sometimes play the Cox. Unfortunately, the guild is on the drooping cup of the balance. "Street Scene" is firmly based on the illusion of naturalism. Rice attempted to give his audience the feeling they were peeking into actual New York tenement life. But the singers in last night's performance could not act...
The stuff of Elmer Rice's 1929 Pulitzer Prize winning "Street Scene," diluted with music, stilted acting and careless staging moved into Cincinnati’s Cox Theater last night. The production, in the form of Kurt Weil's 1947 opera, was offered by the Cincinnati Music-Drama Guild, a collection of amateurs and less than top grade professionals. Since the group chose a major downtown house for their performance and charged accordingly, their work must be compared with the talents of others who sometimes play the Cox. Unfortunately, the guild is on the drooping cup of the balance. "Street Scene" is firmly based on the illusion of naturalism. Rice attempted to give his audience the feeling they were peeking into actual New York tenement life. But the singers in last night's performance could not act...
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