Theater: Family Affair

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK

by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Of the essential heroes and heroines of our age—in which nobility of behavior too often seems but the prelude to the corruption of celebrity—Anne Frank remains one of the most admirable, quietly exerting her claim on conscience and imagination. It is not just that she was martyred before her sweet, shrewd, unaffected voice could be deadened by self-consciousness and moral certitude. It is also that she had a true artistic gift: a good eye for the telling nuances of human behavior, an instinctively humane spirit, delightedly celebrating the persistence of...