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But if Don Juan in Hell is the essence of Shaw's highly debatable beliefs, it is also the epitome of his constantly dazzling methods. Technically no more than an extended dialogue, pyrotechnically it constitutes a splendid show. There are drawbacks: like almost everything of Shaw's, the Hell Scene could be shorter. But the characters score their points like polished duelists, flash their rhetoric like master showmen, make ideas hiss and coil and spring like creatures of melodrama. There are drawbacks to the performers, too: Charles Boyer's decided French accent and Charles Laughton's occasional tendency to ham. But in general, the quartet offers fine ensemble playing, with Boyer a magnetic Juan, Laughton a suavely smiling Devil.
Though Manhattan's one-night audience cheered the First Drama Quartette with a proprietary sense of discovery, the .troupe had already played Manhattan, Kans.-and 105 other whistle stops, cities and metropolises in 35 states, England and Scotland. The trek to what Actor-Director Charles Laughton calls "the huge neglected audience" began last February. Since then, in three tours consisting mostly of one-night stands, Don Juan in Hell has proved a steady sellout everywhere, in arenas, theaters and stadiums, outgrossing South Pacific in Denver, drawing an audience of 3,800 in Emporia, Kans. (pop. 15,500), emptying Carnegie Hall's ticket racks in eight hours. Total receipts so far: about $500,000.
This flourishing new show business grew out of the possibilities that a bright young agent named Paul Gregory, now 30, spotted three years ago in Actor Laughton's talent for reading classics aloud. Laughton had started doing it to entertain troops in hospitals during World War II; Gregory thought it would also appeal to paying audiences. Against the advice of another Hollywood agent ("Most people can read nowadays-who needs it?"), Gregory mortgaged his car to book a concert-like tour called An Armful of Books. Laughton's readings from the Bible and Shakespeare on through James Thurber have since carried him on two more such tours.
Gregory next proposed forming a drama quartet that would act as well as read, and Laughton seized on the idea as an effective way to present his favorite piece of Shavian writing. When Laughton applied for Shaw's permission (and terms), the old man sounded almost as skeptical as the Hollywood agent had been. "The Hell scene is such a queer business," he wrote, "that I can't advise you to experiment with it, but I should certainly like you to try it."
The experiment not only brought Shaw a fat stream of royalty checks until his death, but it stimulated a flagging Hollywood demand for Laughton and Charles Boyer in film roles and has given all four members of the quartet new earnings comparable to their income from the movies.
Producer Gregory, already booking Don Juan in Hell for a fourth tour next fall and winter, has a waiting list of stars eager to step in if any of the quartet should have to drop out. Last week another of his pleasant prospects was a feeling among Manhattan playgoers that they were a huge neglected audience for Don Juan. He booked the show for a four-week return engagement on Broadway, starting Nov. 29. Other commitments permitting, it could probably run merrily for at least a season.