(2 of 3)
Host Allen is as Steverino as ever, especially side by side with the well-tempered clavichord of Daverino (Brubeck) and the clever chords of Peterino (Ustinov).
Mon., Oct. 27
Shirley Temple's Storybook (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). Carol Lynley has the dickens pulled out of her long golden braids when her Prince Charming uses them as a rope ladder to her tower prison. Agnes Moorehead is the devil's advocate in this stab at Rapunzel by the Grimms.
Tues., Oct. 28
Du Pont Show of the Month (CBS, 7:30-9 p.m.). A hot new property, The Count of Monte Cristo, bursts upon an unsuspecting world with Hurd Hatfield as Edmond and Douglas Campbell as Danglars; Director Sidney Lumet (Twelve Angry Men) gives his all.
George Burns Show (NBC, 9-9:30 p.m.). TV Actor Burns takes the safe way out and plays a TV producer in a situation comedy with son Ronnie but—for the first time in years—without Gracie.
THEATER
On Broadway
A Touch of the Poet. Eugene O'Neill's giant strength and giant sprawl, in a long-ago tale of a boozing innkeeper—well-played by Eric Portman—and his shattered pose of being a fine gentleman. With Helen Hayes, Kim Stanley.
The Music Man. Robert Preston brilliant in Meredith Willson's one-man musicomedy job that has all the jubilant old-time energy of a small-town jamboree.
My Fair Lady. Still worth fighting to get into, whether for the first or second time.
The Visit. The Lunts in a fascinatingly acrid continental theater piece concerned with a rich woman's vengeful hate and a community that succumbs to greed.
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. William Inge's family chronicle, alternating parlor comedy with dark tensions; sometimes vivid, sometimes merely facile.
Two for the Seesaw. Uneven but amusing and touching two-character tale of a split-level, ghost-ridden love affair.
On Tour
Auntie Mame, who uproariously escaped from Author Patrick Dennis' booby hatch of a book, has descended on TEXAS (Sylvia Sydney), CHICAGO (Constance Bennett), SAN FRANCISCO (Eve Arden).
My Fair Lady once again proves triumphantly that Shaw can be transplanted to musicomedy land, and Ascot to CHICAGO.
Look Back in Anger. That notorious Angry Young Man, John Osborne, this week growls in DAYTON and COLUMBUS.
The Music Man." Seventy-six trombones and four times as many laughs in SAN FRANCISCO.
BOOKS
Best Reading
Child of Our Time, by Michel del Castillo. An epic account of a heart-rending childhood endured and ultimately ennobled in the concentration camps of Europe.
The Klondike Fever, by Pierre Berton.
Glittering nuggets from the gold rush.
95 Poems, by e.e. cummings. The typographical playboy of U.S. poetry uncorks some champagne music that is lyrical, effervescent, and young in heart.
In Flanders Fields, by Leon Wolff. An absorbing, grim reappraisal of one of history's bloodiest campaigns.
The Housebreaker of Shady Hill, by John Cheever. A master of the short story looks at some cracked-picture-window lives in upper suburbia.
The Secret, by Alba de Cespedes. A sensitive glimpse into the soul of a middle-aged Italian woman, whose problems and dreams do not appear so very different from those of her American sisters.