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tic to a fault. I believe that a star is a man or woman who has an ability for communication that may well go far beyond his individual talents. Stars get to people. And while you may not know precisely how they get there, you are always powerfully aware of the fact that they are traveling. Remember that great line from 42nd Street when Warner Baxter growls at Ruby Keeler- "You're going out a youngster but you gotta' come back a star." I never actually heard of an understudy having exactly that break, although in the ballet Les Patineurs I do recall a ballerina fainting immediately before 32 fouettes, those whipped turns that are the joy of audiences and the despair of dancers. Without missing a beat a young New Zealand girl, Rowena Jackson, who was dancing in the corps de ballet, dashed in and polished off the fouettes in dazzling fashion. Within a brief time, she had made the part her own and soon become a ballerina herself. But stardom is a strange and mystic thing. I don't think it necessarily has to do with ability - although ability has never hurt anyone, except other performers, and I think it a little unlikely that a frankly bad actor would ever achieve stardom. But some stars are minimally gifted. And yet they all do have this effulgent star quality, that is recognizable. Stars are born, not made. Mario Lanza was a star. At the height of his fame a rival studio, wanting its own star, lured a Maltese tenor to Hollywood, put him in The Vagabond King and billed him throughout the world as "Oreste- remember the name you will never forget the voice." Today- do you know? - it is only the name I remember. I suppose some people were always stars - Garbo, for example, or Dietrich - but it often takes a long time for the word to get around. A few Broadway seasons ago, both Alec McCowen in Hadrian VII and James Earl Jones in The Great White Hope became overnight stars. But it was a very long night. Both McCowen and [[advertisement]] Sarah Vaughan Through May 13 Herbie Mann Quintet May 15-June 3 The Rainbow Grill Rockefeller Center - 65th Floor - PL 7*8970 --------- Gallagher's Steak House A Broadway Hit for 40 Years. Dinner 4 pm thru midnight 52nd Street just West of Broadway - CI 5-5536 -------- After L'Theatre or before, it's L'Dinner, L'Supper or L'Dance at L'ETOILE 1 East 59th Street - PL 1-7025 -------- Net contents 12 U.S. Fluid Ounces. Imported by Mitsubishi International Corp, New York, N.Y. KIRIN The beer with no peer. [[image: glass of beer]] Taste Kirin. Discover for yourself why it's the world's finest beer. The beer with no peer. 6 [[end page]] [[start page]] Jones had been around the theatre for many years before the right chance came. When it came they were ready and the public was willing. The big chance, the lucky break - what is is? Well, King Claudius in Hamlet is one of the three or four longest roles in Shakespeare, when uncut, but no one ever got to be a star playing Claudius. But Hamlet is a part that can- when the circumstances are right - make an actor. I think there has to be some kind of coming together. The actor or actress might have been well-known for years, but the final accolade of stardom was never awarded. Cliff Gorman was a considerable hit when he first played Emory in The Boys in the Band, but it did not make a star of him. Then came Lenny and at first it seemed that his identification with Lenny Bruce was so complete that it was doing more to make the late Mr. Bruce a star than the very present Mr. Gorman. But eventually the word got around what a fantastic job Gorman was doing - the publicity approach of the show, which had started by playing Gorman down, changed, and now it's Cliff Gorman who is getting standing ovations at every performance. Another of the season's indisputable new stars is Sada Thompson who is appearing in a dazzling quadruple role in George Furth's new play Twigs. Now Miss Thompson was just as good in the Pulitzer prize-winning Marigolds but that play, although perhaps better as a play, did not give Miss Thompson a chance for the sensational acting tour de force that is the very purpose and justification of Twigs. At once Miss Thompson became a new Broadway star. My last new star is English, Eileen Atkins. Now she has played on Broadway before - in The Killing of Sister George and The Promise - but it took Queen Elizabeth in Robert Bolt's Vivat! Vivat! Regina, and the clash of wills with the already established Clair Bloom, to provide her with her crown. [[advertisement]] Three-star performance: [[image: three cars]] PORSCHE AUDI Manhattan, Inc. Service and Showroom: 547 West 47th Street (11th Ave.) New York City 10036 Tel: (212)489-8600 (East Side Showroom: 500 Lexington Ave. at 47th Street, (212) 758-1240)
