The Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan: Jan. 16, 1939

Mamba's Daughters (dramatized by Dorothy & DuBose Heyward from his novel; produced by Guthrie McClintic) is not another Porgy. It equals Porgy as a document on Negro dialect and folkways, has some exciting, a few touching moments. But if Mamba's Daughters took one step more it would topple over into sheer ten-twent-thirt.

Mamba's Daughters tells of big, awkward, blundering, childlike Hagar (Ethel Waters) and her passionate, inarticulate love for her daughter, Lissa. Her dream is to make a lady of Lissa. But a misstep on the girl's part threatens her reputation. To keep it...

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