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Claudette Colbert says that for her half the pleasure of the show comes from "watching Lynn Redgrave work."

ads screamed. And the Grade-A cast assembled for the Broadway edition calls for more choruses of "Auld Lang Syne." George Rose, who also has a Tony for My Fair Lady and who more recently butlered and refereed the Kingfisher love match, is present this time around as an argumentative old vicar. Then there's Rose's old friend from My Fat Friend, Lynn Redgrave, playing Harrison's daughter-in-law. Harrison's son is played by Jeremy Brett, who was Rex's rival for Eliza Doolittle in the movie version of My Fair Lady. And Harrison seems to think his sister in the play, Brenda Forbes, was his housekeeper in one of the My Fair Lady companies.

This casting is just cozy enough to permit some important character shifts without seriously disturbing the comedy's equilibrium. Top-billed Harrison and Colbert are mostly confined to the sidelines where they bill and coo accordingly (she throws her matrimonial net, he ducks). The play's Main Event - a triangular donnybrook among the young (Brett, Redgrave and some Australian bloke who happens along to disrupt their marriage) - doesn't involve them in anything more strenuous than dropping a wicked aside from time to time.

"I must admit I developed second thoughts about the play and almost backed out of it," Colbert confesses. "I thought it would be a kind of cheat, because the audience expects more from me. But when we finally got the play up and in front of audiences, the size of the role suddenly didn't matter. Half the pleasure I get out of doing this show is watching Lynn Redgrave work. She's marvelous, such a strength for the show. I get such a kick out of her. Lynn never misses."

Redgrave is indeed the play's wild card, but Colbert is no slouch in the slinky-vamp department, either. Observe the way she tugs at a man's coat sleeve, merrily expecting his protection. This is the sort of French trick Gigi might learn from her courtesan aunt, and it has kept Colbert in solid vamp standing for 62 years at least.

Harrison has his moments in the play, too - and one in particular toward the end when he is amazed and dismayed to read in The London Times that he and Colbert will wed. Someone says he seemed so happy as a bachelor. "Apparently, I wasn't," Harrison says, allowing his eyes to fall forlornly on The Times. That moment alone is one for the memory book, impeccably timed and worthy of Chaplin.

"I don't think comedian is the right word for me," Harrison reflects. "Comedians, to me, are people who stand up. Stand-up comics. I don't consider myself a stand-up comic, no. I consider myself an actor. I'm an actor of comedy, and I'm an actor of drama. I've done both. I like to get humor into anything I do. Certainly, it becomes very dull if it hasn't got any humor. But I'm not essentially a high-comedy actor. I think I would describe myself as an actor who basically enjoys playing comedy as against high-comedy or high-drama."

The years Harrison spent in My Fair Lady have left him with a permanent aversion to long runs. "They frighten me to such an extent I don't do them," he readily admits. "This run is strictly limited. We're not going on beyond the 21st of July. I can't do it. I mean, I can do eight shows a week, but I can't do anything else. And I don't like my life to be totally curtailed.

"These light plays don't need any less energy, they need more, because with a strong play like say, Heartbreak House, you get a lot of support from a lot of other actors and the play holds itself up pretty strong. With a piece of fluff, it takes a lot of working, a lot of manipulating to keep an audience amused with it. But Aren't We All? has a nice shape, it has sentiment, it has humor. I'm only too sorry that Freddy Lonsdale isn't alive to see it because he would have enjoyed it." 

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