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INADMISSIBLE EVIDENCE. In the dock of self-accusation, a man charges that his life has become an obscenity. John Osborne's anti-hero—a defeated solicitor in his middle years—has lost his way but not his wittily vituperative voice, and Nicol Williamson, 28, brings this grieving, raging character to memorable life in the most powerful male performance Broadway has seen in more than a decade.
CACTUS FLOWER. France's humor, like its wine, travels well, since it is usually about a universal subject, sex. With Abe Burrows at the helm, this farce about a rouéish dentist whose idea of honesty is to tell his mistress he's married when he's not, has made a successful crossing. Lauren Bacall and Barry Nelson are on board.
YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU. In the Sycamore household, anything can happen—and certainly does. As captured by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart in 1936, the inspired madness of an everlasting free-spirited Manhattan family seems exquisitely refreshing to today's theatergoers—who may have forgotten that to be effective, humor need not be black.
THE ROYAL HUNT OF THE SUN. A pantomimic interpretation of the Spanish conquistadors ascending the Andes and the gorgeously costumed array of conquered Peruvians make a dazzling wrapping, but cannot hide the dramatic hollowness of Peter Shaffer's historical drama.
RECORDS
Spoken
SHAKESPEARE: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (3 LPs; RCA Victor). In Shakespeare's funniest social comedy, everything depends on the speed and sparkle of the witty duels between Beatrice and Benedick, played here by two fast-rising British stars, Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens, whose voices are whirling kaleidoscopes. That young theatrical iconoclast, Franco Zeffirelli (creator of a successful beatnik Hamlet), directed this National Theater of Britain production, which one critic called as lurid and animated as a Superman comic. The performance on the recording is robust but never bumptious.
THE STEVENSON WIT (RCA Victor) consists of excerpts from the speeches, press conferences and off-the-cuff remarks of the late ambassador, strung together with remarks by David Brinkley. Though Stevenson's wit was warm and enlightening, he was not a comic, and to isolate his jokes from the eloquent purposes they served does him no great service and gives the listener little sustenance.
T. S. ELIOT: THE FAMILY REUNION (3 LPs; Caedmon). Static and awkward to stage with its philosophic asides and Greek choruses, this poetic play is ideal for recording. One of Eliot's last undertakings was to help choose the excellent cast, which perfectly weaves the shadowy modern drama of sin and expiation. Dame Sybil Thorndike is Amy, the steely dowager who has spent 35 years "designing" her son's life. Paul Scofield plays Harry, the restless, half-mad son who bursts asunder the conventional family gathering, and Flora Robson is Agatha, the all-knowing aunt ("When the loop in time comes," she warns, "the hidden :i revealed, and the spectres show themselves").