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CBS REPORTS (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). An analysis of "The Poisoned Air," by which they mean stuff most people breathe. Repeat.
THEATER
On Broadway
THE HOMECOMING is a totally engrossing drama. Written sparely by Harold Pinter, directed tautly by Peter Hall, performed perfectly by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company, it tickles one's humor while gnawing the instincts and scratching the soul.
THE WILD DUCK. The APA repertory company lights flares of understanding in Henrik Ibsen's examination of the human havoc that can result from too ruthless a devotion to honesty. But its production, while accomplished, is a trifle too cozy to carry off the playwright's crueler intention: to drag everyone and everything into unrelenting light.
AT THE DROP OF ANOTHER HAT is a visit with an urbane, engaging pair of hosts, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann, who invite those devoted to civilized wit for a bit of an old daft do. THE STAR-SPANGLED GIRL. Neil Simon's latest comedy entry is funny in spurts, but labors under three hard-to-shake burdens: a hackneyed book, heavy-handed direction and ho-hum acting.
I DO! I DO! claims to chronicle a marriage, but seems instead to give a recipe for a wedding cake: all sugar, no spice. Only the team de force of the U.S. musical stage—Mary Martin and Robert Preston— gives the evening a dash of zest.
CABARET, a musical based in prewar Germany, excites the senses with the low browhaus style of its choreography, scenery and costumes, but dulls the mind with commercial cliches for book and score.
WALKING HAPPY, a low-voltage musical based on Hobson's Choice, is switched on brightly by British Comedian Norman Wisdom. Danny Daniels' electric choreography sparks some good fun.
SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL. Eighteenth century Londoners frequented Richard Sheridan's classroom of comedy to be taught their three Rs: the Risque, Rumor, Revenge. The APA go through their lessons with a flick of their wits.
RIGHT YOU ARE. The APA keeps the philosophical ball rolling in Luigi Pirandello's dramatic investigation into the nature of reality.
Off Broadway
EH? And what if Godot had arrived? And what if he were even more absurd than the Beckett boys who awaited him? He probably would have come as Valentine Brose, the nonsenstential anti-hero of Henry Livings' balmy fares.
AMERICA HURRAH is what's happening in terms of free-form, timely theater. Jean-Claude van Ital lie's three playlets are high-speed trips through a contemporary world of fragmented experience.
RECORDS
Stage, Screen & Streisand
CABARET (Columbia). The original-cast album of Broadway's current musical recalls the tarnished tinsel of Berlin in the early '30s, with Lotte Lenya and Joel Grey singing songs of disillusion that seem more wail than Weill.
THE APPLE TREE (Columbia). Another successful musical with a less than memoible score, but on this cast album, Star Barbara Harris shows her remarkably versatile vocal range as well as some high-gloss style.
WALKING HAPPY (Capitol). The near-classic British play Hobson's Choice has been set to pleasant old-fashioned music and lyrics by Jimmy Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn for the current Broadway musical, and the show album ambles along just as cheerfully.